Hello World
It has been a very long time since Lou and I has posted a Blog! WOW, trhe last time we did this was when we were doing Ironman Triathlons.
Well it has been a hot minute, now many years later we have three beautiful kids and living back in South Africa, it has been a jouirney of note.
We finished up with Ironman Triathlons when we did Wales and moved toward CrossFit, we opened a CrossFit gym and 8 years later sold it, we decided to pack up and move back to SA.
A lot can be said about that move and how difficult is was to leave our friends, our Church family and even our pets in the UK not to mentiuon our business that we built from nothing.
It was hard and starting all over again was even harder.
We have been back in SA now for about 2 and a bit years, life has taken us on a different route and we are trying to see where it leads.
Initially we moved home with ideas and plans, but as all things go, a man makes plans, but God's will will prevail.
I want to just share some stuff on here as it comes up and here is my first shot at it!
Enjoy, comment and let's chat!
Chapter 1
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
In today's society we find ourselves in communities of people that have come off the back end of a very difficult time, these times turned them into tough people.
They in turn created easy times at home because they did not want their kids to endure what they endured.
They also gave the kids access to external voices through tech, social media and friends.
In exchange they lost their kids' ear, communication fell apart.
Parents will step into every situation to make their kids' life easier, losing sight of their own hardships and struggles and not realizing what those times have done to make them the human they are.
The kids in turn have lost the ability to communicate, to listen to the parent and to endure tough circumstances, the parent has tried their very best, but failed the child in the trying.
The over protection of the child has caused the parent to protect them from the surface threats (not making teams, teachers, other kids, not allowing the kid to try in case they lose or fail) but lost the ability to protect them from the underlying threat that is busy breaking families apart (social media, technology, gaming, friends voices, internet).
You lose contact with the child, the device becomes the parent and you relinquish your responsibilities to the device, the voice they hear is no longer yours, it is the worlds’.
You allow anyone and everything into that room into those ears and into that mind.
The algorithm then feeds the child and off you go, far away from what you know.
In a home where the parent “protects” there will be a conversation and in one sentence the parent will express how useless the math teacher is for giving the kid an E- and in the same sentence the parent will allow for more screen time and buy more data.
Parents work more hours and spend less time with kids.
Kids can no longer be kids because to be a kid means play, imagination, developing motor skills. Parents are tired and come home from the tough environment and give up. They give the kids the screen and neglect the communication, the relationship and only want to protect what they see, but miss what is right in their own home.
In short, parents are tough because they went through tough times they do not want their kids to experience the same tough stuff so they fight for their kids in all the wrong places they fight the school, teachers, friends anything they deem a threat, but they neglect the real threat and allow them free reign on that.
It is always somebody else. Parents lose their kids and protect them best they can, but fail because they are protecting them from the wrong things.
It is like employing an evil nanny, she looks great, chats great but is poisoning your child, you go look at everyone else and blame everyone else because your kid is sick meanwhile the nanny that lives under your roof is poisoning your own child!
The need is trying to re educate the parent, re educate the child and to implement a new way of living. Parents have lost control of their kids and kids have lost the ability to communicate and handle conflict.
