Uncle Andrew's Words of Wisdom

This afternoon I recieved a text message from my little brother, Andrew. He's technically my half-brother (brotha from another motha) ;-)... but still, he's my brother. It made me think about a very special gift he gave us this past Christmas... In his 10 year old wisdom he took the time to sit down and make a list of parenting advice for Dave & I. He was very excited about the thought of becoming an Uncle! He was very private about this list he made. Lynette (my step-mom) said that as he was writing it he wouldn't let her come near because he didn't want her to see it.

When we all (my brothers, Dave & my brother's wife) gathered together at their house for Christmas I had been anxiously waiting to see what it said. (Lynette had told me about his list previously). After presents were done Lynette reminded Andrew of the list he made for us. I could tell he was a little embarassed as he went to get it. :) Right before he gave it to me he folded it up over & over, as small as he could. He then grabbed me by the jeans pocket & started to cram it in my pocket telling me to wait until we got home to read it. :)

He made a list of 20 tips on being good parents! He put stars next to a few of them that he thought were extra important & so those will be the ones I'll share. These are in his exact words and spellings:

"#1. try not to yell
#2. try to give rewards
#3. don't be to protective
#4. trie not to let him learn swears at a young age (that is not a good outcome)
#6. let him decide himself if he wants to do art.
#8. keep the Wii.
#12. NO Robot chicken, Family Guy, american Dad or King of the Hill (tv shows)"
#15. give lots of love

I both cried & laughed as I read this list. What a thoughtful gift from such an amazing boy. I love Andrew so much. Another thing he added to the list which is one of my favorites is, "tell about his grandfather he never knew and never will", refering to our dad, & Samuel's Gpa Stueve. Our dad, Mark Stueve, died March 9, 2004 of colon cancer. He's the only grandparent of Samuel's that he won't know during this lifetime...which is why we named our little Sam after him (Samuel Mark Adams), but that is for another post at another time..... :)