Why I Parent.......

There is a reason I parent. It's more than the moral responsablity I have to my child or me being an alpha male by nature, it's because I know the importance of having a male role model/father figure. From the outside you would say that would be my father but we know things are not what they are. My Pops and I are cool now and for the last decade. He was their for me from birth til I was about 12 but then gone for around 10 years. The become a man years. The younger me had a problem with him not being there for that gap in my life. The older me knows that we all have our own demons. So now at 35 and seeing all I have seen in my life, I ain't trippin on that. But back to those growing years..... from around the age of 12 thru 22 years old, the reality of life comes into focus in a youth. That's when a child will have the most life questions, it's when they need the most leadership. It's the age when the steets get more tempting, money gains real value, girls go from cute to sexy and emotions go from like to love. I see my son fast approaching this time period I see his friends also soon to be coming to this age range. I remember hauing questions at that age but I had no one to ask. I was alone with thousards of questions. I had no one to turn when I wanted to play sports. No one to talk to after the first time I had sex. No one to beat my ass the first time I got brought drugs in the houuse. No one to tell my you don't keep a loaded gun where any one in the house can get it. (Sorry NovaMom). No one to teach me the dangers of street life. No one to teach me how to treat a female. No one to show me how to become a man. I refuse to let my son, his friends or this whole generation of kids go thru the growing years with those questions. This is why I parent. This is why I spend time with these kids. This is why I don't give "our leaders" a free pas. I'm not just a parent to my child but a neighborhood of children.