<<.."..I did not want just to be a
good dad: I wanted to be the greatest father that there had ever been. I
wanted to be the John Wooden of parents. I wanted my children to be
talking their whole lives about how great it was to have me for their dad".>>
The Parking Lot Rules
Hard-won lessons from the
front lines of fatherhood
By: Tom Sturges
It is harder to get a
driver's license than to become a parent.
With a license, you at least get a pamphlet to leaf through before the big
test. Not so with parenting. Fifteen years ago, when my son Thomas was
born, I was thrust into a role for which I had no training, no experience,
no expertise, no real knowledge on the subject, and nowhere to get it.
There were plenty of books about getting pregnant, naming your zygote,
what to eat during the fifth month, and the value of listening to Mozart
during the third trimester. There were more depend-able guides about
walking through Europe than there were about taking the right steps to be
the kind of dad I wanted to be. And I did not want just to be a good dad:
I wanted to be the greatest father that there had ever been. I wanted to
be the John Wooden of parents. I wanted my children to be talking their
whole lives about how great it was to have me for their dad.
But how do you teach a child to be kind and honest, insightful and
inquisitive, athletic, curious, loving and gracious, thoughtful…? How do
you give a child a huge heart, make him understand loyalty, and provide
him with the courage it takes to be a good sport and a good brother and a
good son? Where do you even find the book that teaches you how to teach
him?
I started to come up with my own ideas and guidelines for raising Thomas.
After many stops and starts, I began to write down the ideas that worked
best. Ideas that did not work were plentiful, unfortunately. These
included Darkroom Baths, Child Steers While Daddy Drives, and probably the
worst idea ever, Downhill Tricycle Drag Races. Through this trial and
error, I discovered that by loving my children, I could recover my own
lost childhood. The better I was able to make their childhood, the better
I started to feel about my own. This became particularly clear to me when
Thomas was about to be 3 years, 2 months, and 1 week old, exactly the age
I was when my father died, the day everything changed, the day I lost my
way and did not even know it.
The basic premise of Parking Lot Rules is that it's impossible to
show a child too much respect, but it's worth the effort to try. There is
no one way to raise children. It requires flexibility and insight, and
wisdom not yet gained, and the awareness of when to say just the right
thing and when to say absolutely nothing. My hope is that parents will
find in these rules a range of options to choose from when it comes to
their most precious creations—their children—and the most gratifying
experience they will ever know: parenting those children.
1 The Parking Lot Rules
In a world inhabited by cars the size of small houses, the parking lot can
be an incredibly dangerous place. The drivers of these SUVs are in another
world: watching their own children, talking on their cell phones, or
listening to the radio. The last thing they are looking for is your brood.
Teach your children that they need to be right next to you whenever you
are in a parking lot. There is to be no trailing behind and no racing
ahead. The moment you near a parking lot, call out "Parking lot rules,"
and your children will know that they absolutely must be by your side.
This rule can also apply to any time you perceive a danger that your
children have missed: perhaps raised voices or the sound of broken glass
or a stranger acting erratically. It beats yelling, "Look out for the
crazy guy!"
2 The Bon Jovi
Rule (No Hands to the Face)
Richie Sambora is the guitarist for Bon Jovi as well as a devoted dad to
his daughter, Ava. He once said the band's ability to stay healthy on the
road is made possible by one rule: No hands to the face. Rock 'n' roll
stars shake so many hands and encounter so many germs while touring—greeting
fans backstage, signing autographs, and attending afterparties. You will
almost never see a successful rock 'n' roll superstar sticking his finger
in his eye if he has an itch. Instead, he will use a sleeve, a cuff, a
shirttail, a tissue, or whatever else is available. Let your children
learn how to stay healthy from one of the greatest rock bands in the
world.
3 The Skip the First
Thing That Comes to Mind Rule
One day I was playing golf with my son Sam, who was a pretty good golfer
for a 6-year-old. But on this particular outing, he missed the ball three
times in a row. He must have known that I would be unhappy, and he looked
up at me to get the confirmation. I was surprised by how many things I
thought of to say to him, none of which were very nice. For instance, that
he wasn't going to Stanford if he kept playing like that. That he wasn't
going to win the 2020 Masters if he didn't start concentrating. And on and
on. But instead, I finally said to him, "Must have been a tough lie, Sam.
Keep trying, okay?" Relieved that I was not upset, he grabbed his
three-wood and walked over to his ball. He set up his shot and hit the
ball perfectly—a hundred yards down the middle of the fairway. For the
rest of the day, his game was back on track. By saying nothing bad, I said
that everything was good, especially between us.
4 The Good
Listener Rule
If your child can tell a good story, it gives her greater confidence
around her peers, especially when the attention of a room is upon her. But
to help ensure that your daughter becomes a good storyteller, you must
become a good listener. If you show the slightest disinterest or
frustration, your daughter will instinctively know, and she will rush to
the ending, thinking her time is running out. Look her right in the eyes
when she is talking. Say "yes" and "uh-huh" and encourage her to provide
lots of details. If a story is tumbling out all over the place, gently ask,
"Who is this story about, please? What happened to them again? Where did
that happen exactly? Why does it matter so much to you, my darling?"
Listen well and she won't think twice before approaching you with another
tale of her adventures.
5 The When You
Get Upset, Whisper Rule
No matter how much you love your children, you will get upset with them.
But just because your angel did something idiotic does not mean that you
have to do something idiotic in return. If you really want children to
hear every word that you have to say, lean over to them, put your lips
close to their ears, and whisper to them. The complete privacy of the
interaction and the heat of your breath in their ears will bring full and
total attention to your every word. Whisper things like "Daddy is very
disappointed in the way you are acting." There is no need to hiss or
explode your consonants or in any way sound angry. Whispering parents
inspire, yelling parents intimidate. Whispering saves your children the
embarrassment of being scolded in front of their friends or family and
never gives them reason to doubt you love them.
6 The Do-Over
Option Rule
Recently, Sam and I agreed he could have two cookies for dessert if he
promised to take a bath. He had just taken the first bite of the second
cookie when he said he had no intention of bathing. With the speed of a
mongoose happening upon a nest of snake eggs, I snatched that cookie out
of his hand. "What did you just say, Sam?" I asked. "I was just kidding,
Dad, just kidding…" he implored. "I don't think you were. Please tell me
why you would say that or even think of saying something like that." The
bottom was dropping out of the good time we had just been enjoying. I did
not like that he had been deceptive with me, even if he was kidding, but I
did not feel like ruining our evening together. So I offered him the
option of starting the conversation all over again, as if we were in a
scene from Groundhog Day. He leaped at the opportunity. I handed him back
the cookie.
7 The First Bite/Last
Bite Rule
I took 7-year-old Thomas to Paris several years ago. I told him we might
be eating such delicacies as escargot, foie gras, and coquille St.
Jacques. He was not enthused. That is, until I came up with the first
bite/last bite rule. Thomas agreed to have one real bite of any food that
I put in front of him. This would be the "first bite." In exchange, he
earned the right to finish anything I was eating or drinking, except
alcohol, of course. This would be the "last bite." I sold him by pointing
out that the many delicious last bites he would enjoy (of cookies,
chocolate cake, milk shakes, and so on) would more than make up for a few
unusual-tasting first bites. On the second night, Thomas and I took the
Métro to the famed restaurant La Coupole. I ordered the escargot,
smothered in rich oils and garlic sauce. When the dish arrived, Thomas
looked horrified. I said, "Thomas…first bite/last bite," and held out a
dripping mollusk. He gulped at me in protest, but knowing that he had to
eat only one bite gave him all the courage he needed. He opened his mouth,
popped in the delicacy, had a few fast chews, and quickly washed it down.
He shook his head back and forth as if to say "That was pretty awful," but
he played by the rule. It continues to have a place in our lives, not just
on trips, but every day. Teach your children the Bon
Jovi rule: No hands to the face.
8 The John Elway Rule
Words like terrified and panic-stricken will hold new meaning if you ever
lose your child in a crowd. Unfortunately, it happens. When you'll be in a
crowded place, make your child easy to spot by dressing him in an NFL
jersey, which is meant to be seen from the top row of an enormous stadium
in the middle of a rainstorm. If he does stray, your eyes will sweep the
crowd and easily spot John Elway's Denver Broncos number 7 (a
bright-orange number on a deep-blue background) walking somewhere he
should not be walking. If he is ever seriously lost and you need to
contact security, the first question they will ask is "What is he wearing?"
It will be more efficient to describe him as a three-foot-tall version of
John Elway than as "a cute little boy with brown hair and a beige T-shirt"
or "I think he might have been wearing shorts and a tank top." Of course
there are times when a football jersey might not be appropriate. But, just
keep in mind the spirit of the John Elway rule.
9 The 90 Percent
Rule
When faced with the prospect of dealing with an angry parent or telling a
little white lie, a child will often choose the latter. Therefore, there
needs to be a clear benefit to telling the truth, even to a 6-year-old who
just flushed her turtle down the toilet. So when she tells the truth, tell
her what the punishment would have been had she lied, and then reduce the
punishment by 90 percent as her reward. Case in point: My then
third-grader Thomas was in tears when I came home one day. Breathless and
tearful, he stood there looking up at me. He managed to stammer out, "Does
the t-truth still refuse the p-punishment by 90 percets?" I told him it
would. Out poured the story of his accidentally hitting another boy and
being reprimanded by his teacher. He finished triumphantly, "…and that's
the truth, Dad." I told him that if his teacher had called to tell me all
these sad details, the punishment would have been two weeks without TV or
video games, and no sleepovers. His eyes widened as he realized how
seriously I viewed the infraction. But because he had told me the truth, I
told him the punishment was reduced by 90 percent, from two weeks to two
nights. The link between truth and punishment was forged in him forever.
10 The "Yes" Not
"What" Rule
When your daughter calls out to you, answer her by saying "Yes?" or "Yes,
my love?" or "Yes, my darling?" Or simply answer by saying her name in a
loving and respectful way. Never answer "What?" in response to your
daughter calling you. It is unwelcoming and dismissive. It tells her that
she has interrupted you or that you have something more important to do
than speak with her. But what could be more important than communicating
with your beautiful child? The question that she is asking you or the
dilemma that she has brought to you to solve may seem somewhat
insignificant. But to your daughter, this particular request may be a
crisis that only you can solve. She chose you to solve it. By responding "Yes,
my love?" not "What?" or "What is it?" when she calls out your name, you
are reaffirming to her the sweet knowledge that she is one of the most
important people in your world.
Tom Sturges is a mentor, teacher, coach, and volunteer,
and the father of two sons, now ages ten and sixteen. He is Executive Vice
President and Head of Creative for Universal Music Publishing Group.
Excerpted from Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for
Raising Amazing Children, by Tom Sturges.
© 2008 by Tom Sturges. Reprinted by arrangement
with Random House Publishing Group.
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