I always knew I was G rated!

I found this on another adoptive mom's blog site, and decided to try it out to see what my blog is rated. As expected, I'm G rated!

Not much happening today. I took DD2 to swim team practice at the YMCA, and while I was there, worked on my laptop. Afterwards I stopped in at the Members Services office to pick up the volunteer sheets for DD1 and DD2 to volunteer to help out with the swimming classes. DD2 is totally excited about it. DD1 is not. Here's some of what DD1 had to say about this: "Why do I have to volunteer?", "I don't want to do this!", "You can't force me to volunteer!", "None of my friends' parents make them volunteer!",  and the ever present and popular with teenagers everywhere "It's Not Fair!"

Guess what, her dad and I don't care if it's fair or even if she wants to do it.  And least of all, do we care if her friends' parents are or aren't making them volunteer over the summer.Want to know why? Because life is about helping other people, and not about taking everything you can get out of it. Volunteering is a way to help other people, but it's also a way to meet and be around new people, teach children new things, experience the feeling of having a child think you're awesome because you know how to swim and they don't, and well, there's just many more good things that volunteering does for you than bad things. None of these good things are surpassed by the reason she doesn't want to volunteer which is basically that she doesn't want to do it. Besides if she doesn't volunteer this summer, then she'll be sitting around home watching tv or on the computer, and that's something we don't want to encourage too much!

When we were having this, um, conversation last night with her, I got to thinking that there were things that my parents made me do when I was around DD1's age that I just hated to do and thought I hated my parents for making me do. As an adult, it's funny how my perspective has changed. I appreciate most of those things that my parents forced me to do. Those experiences taught me things that I wouldn't have learned otherwise. That's why DD1 has to volunteer even though she thinks she doesn't want to right now.