Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for January 09, 2023

I don’t have children. So y’all tell me if it’s a good idea trying to get a child to follow your dreams. Or let them choose their on path.

Hammie got a slinky!

Let your kid choose what they want to do, dang it!

It would be better to dream about something that earns money instead of an expensive sport like figure skating.

We are all different, Mom, let Zoe choose what sport she would like to participate in!

I know the feeling

join peewee hockey – then you can practice your offensive maneuvers on Hammie

It looks like Zoe is up the creek without a paddle.

I did what my father wanted me to do. Blaze my own trail, not his.

I let my kids go into any sport they wanted to try. If they got tired of it, they moved on to something else.

I DREAMED of being Peggy Fleming as a kid. And at least I got (cheap) skates every Xmas and would skate for hours on ponds for fun. My mother said no to real lessons, though. BUT she gave me piano lessons, swimming lessons, tennis lessons. All things I liked, but had no real passion for. They were HER dreams. So…. after my kids were born, I began taking those figure skating lessons! And guess what? I am living my childhood dream! Ok, no Olympics, but it’s not about that. I compete with other adults, travel for adult competitions, have won medals and trophies….and I get to wear those beautiful blinged-out dresses. I’ve been doing this now for 35 years. I wonder how far I could have gone if my mother had tried to fulfill MY dreams rather than her own. >sigh<

Awww . .. I think it’s sweet. When I was itty bitty, I wanted to be a ballerina but never got to take any lessons. I think if a kids’ parents are willing to invest the time, energy, and money into lessons, they’re demonstrating interest in their kids. Some never get that chance.

And, heck, it’s just temporary fun. Not a life path.

:-DNever could get the hang of skating, even having spent my early years in the frozen North.

You got it, kid. Sad isn’t it. Tell her.

Well Zoe, that’s what happens when you provide only partial information and aren’t specific with your Christmas wish list.

Oh, no no no. Your dreams are GONE hon, only your mom’s from now on.

I don’t remember being pushed in any direction, but I do remember 2 key things that shaped my future in a major way. My father had taken a College Course for his job, and he had put his textbook in our library. It was “Introduction to Data Processing”. Almost as soon as I opened it, I was hooked. I went into first, Mainframe Computer Programming, then PC Support. The other incident was, one day I came home to see my mother struggling to follow the moves of the Fischer-Spassky Chess Championship Match in 1972. The moves published in the local newspaper were full of errors, so I attempted to “decipher” the articles with her each day. That started a life-long love of Chess for me.

better than trying to get them to chase cars.

Please, Wanda! DON’T send Zoe down a path like a Tonya Harding !! …

Oh yes, that you shall do. It was always your destiny….

Excessive beauty, poise, and skill can be a real drag. That’s why I tried to avoid them. AND so successfully I might add.

I guess they still make the Slinky toy.

Hammie’s slinky toy reminded me about the metal ones we had as kids, and then our kids played with them, and then later, after they grew up, we gave them up to some cousin or other, when they came over with their kids… and now I wish we didn’t since seeing them on the Antique Roadshow and finding out that those metal ones are “vintage” and worth serious moola…

The same with the wood tinkertoys and their canister…. It went to the cousins’ kids, and we never saw them play with them again. For all we know they became kindling in their fireplace…

Sorry Zoe.

No such thing as soft ice.Like roller skating,you learn by hanging on for dear life to the railing

Poor Zoe. At least you’ll be a better skater than me *knock on wood.

NOT a good idea.

Take it as plan B, dear.

Yah, don’t do that to your kids.

Maybe Zoe doesn’t WANT to be a figure skater!

Well ice skating can be a pain.