{"id":9857,"date":"2015-06-21T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T12:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9857"},"modified":"2015-06-21T12:49:16","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T12:49:16","slug":"dads-get-smarter-the-older-we-become","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9857","title":{"rendered":"Dads get smarter the older we become"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><em>\u201cWhen I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>&#8212; Mark Twain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">How true is that?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Of course, it&#8217;s not really the &#8220;old man&#8221; who learned all those thing. It&#8217;s the individual he brought into the world who&#8217;s climbed the learning hill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Most of us have had similar experiences with our parents. Dad and Mom were dumber than dirt when we were kids. Then at some point, a miracle occurred. For me, it came around the time of my 25th year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">I was a new parent at the time myself. The younger of my two sons had just been born. My wife and I were seeking our way in the world. We couldn&#8217;t really know, of course, where our journey would take us. It&#8217;s taken us to plenty of places. We&#8217;ve been able to see and do many things we never dreamed of doing when we both were kids.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">But right about the time I started my own on-the-job parental training, I began to realize the difficulty that my parents went through to rear my sisters and me. And I began to realize they weren&#8217;t so dumb after all.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">This wising up happens to most of us. When it does, benefits are spread all around.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Mom and Dad seem smarter than they were. You definitely are smarter than you were. The shared wisdom accrues to everyone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The greatest payoff of all is when you realize on these days when we honor our parents &#8212; such as Mothers and Fathers Day &#8212; that you&#8217;ve done your job well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The journey my wife and I have taken together for the past nearly 44 years has included watching our own sons grow into fine men. Did they think of us the way ol&#8217; Sam Clemens and I thought of our parents? Sure they did &#8230; and although neither of them ever articulated as such to either of us, it&#8217;s part of growing up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">That&#8217;s OK. We&#8217;re all past that now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">They&#8217;ve made us proud every step of the way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">All of us have gotten smarter, too.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhen I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.\u201d &#8212; Mark Twain How true is that? Of course, it&#8217;s not really the &#8220;old &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9857\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dads get smarter the older we become<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[1689,2918,3138,4092],"class_list":["post-9857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-uncategorized","tag-fathers-day","tag-mark-twain","tag-mothers-day","tag-samuel-clemens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}