Stuff My Dad Says

Here's my Pop standing next to a section of the Berlin Wall in Warminster, Pa. I know I have used this pic before in another Post. It is an iconic picture for me on many levels which I won't delve into right now...think on it, I am sure you can deduce some of the meaning.

I was trying to think of one quote the captures my Dad. Scratching out the ones that use salty language, I think I got it: "Not everyone can play first base for the Yankees."

I am not sure if this a George Bierker original, but it does do a good job expressing the essence of my Dads take on life. Enjoy the life you have, not the one that you don't.

Being that he grew up in New York City and was a Yankees fan (until they won the World Series year after year and began thinking, "What is the point?") maybe he entertained thoughts of playing for the Yankees....Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Bierker. Then, at some juncture, when he couldn't even be tops of his sandlot team, he moved on.

Moms tend to be the one's that say to kids, "You can do anything honey" or put even the lamest piece of artwork winds up on the fridge. Dads ask (or at least to say in the old school of parenting), "What's this crap?" You want to be an artist? The closest thing you are going to get to being a painter is as a house painter." That's the way it tended to roll in my family and still does. I think Dads want to toughen their kids up for a harsh world and to develop some psychological resistance to adversity...and they decide to be adverse to accomplish this.

Too much praise ruins a child. Recipients of such often act like a two year old ready to tantrum in the face of things not going their way. Moms often have blind spots about their progeny and that is ultimately a good thing as long as it is tempered by some fire of reality entering the parenting. Dads should praise their kids, yet drawing the line between healthy and unhealthy commendation. Moms could stand to toughen and tighten up on the word flattery.

I know this are stereotypes....some mom's are sharp-tongued shrews who belittle their kids mercilessly. Some Dads are effusive in praise beyond what is helpful.

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