NEWS

Spring: New opportunities for you and your children

With the recent crowning of Duke University as Men’s Basketball National Champions, the Final Four and basketball season has come to an official end. This could mean only one thing – spring. It is now time for all fathers and families to renew their family bond. It’s time to check the air in your kids’ bicycle tires, dust off the baseball gloves, and restock the sidewalk chalk. Spring is here. It is time for families to be actively engaged in nuances of spring cleaning and enjoy the rebirth of our surroundings.

No matter what situation you’re in as a father, whether life seems pretty good right now or you’re really struggling, I hope you’ll apply this idea of renewal to your role. Spring is a renaissance. A rebirth of everything around us, and hopefully within us as well.

Sometimes I find myself falling asleep on the couch after doing the nightly chores with the kids and around the house, and then wake up to the television still being on. Recently as I awoke one night, I began watching a movie,”Renaissance Man” starring Danny Devito. Although I have seen this movie many times, it was hitting at a special nerve. Maybe it was the timing, maybe it was the message.

Bill Rago was a divorced advertising executive down on his luck. When he loses his job, the unemployment agency finds him a temporary job; teaching a class at a nearby U.S. Army training base. Initially unenthusiastic and unable to connect with his pupils, he is on the verge of giving up. However, in a desperate attempt to spark their interest, Rago quotes from his favorite play, Hamlet. Eventually through his teaches, his understudies end up excelling all while he has rebuilt himself, and his own relationship with his daughter. While helping his daughter to reach her dreams, by supporting something he had initially neglected. DeVito’s character was a true Renaissance Man, because not only did he change others, he changed himself and families.

As of right now in our area, flowers are coming up, trees are blooming. There is fresh grass growing and being cut for the first few times. Everything seems new. The warmer weather and the longer days, means more opportunities to be with you children doing things they enjoy. So, you say you are too tired and think you still need to rest, do it while lying in the driveway and allowing your children to trace around your body on the concrete with their sidewalk chalk.

Spring brings so many renewals of opportunities to be with our kids. Whether it be just sitting and observing them and noticing their mannerisms, their choices, what they do and how they do it. Your bond with your kids may be on the sports field, helping to coach a little league baseball team, while yet other fathers may bond through early morning breakfasts, gardening, or hiking the trails. The only catch is you have to be present for this Renaissance. We can all find and travel different paths to having successful relationships with our children, the key is you influence and build those positive relationships by being present.

Monthly Quote:

“Youth is the spirit of adventure and awakening. It is a time of physical emerging when the body attains the vigor and good health that may ignore the caution of temperance. Youth is a period of timelessness when the horizons of age seem too distant to be noticed.” — Ezra Taft Benson

Monthly Challenge:

Sit down and discuss what spring has to offer your family. Make a to do list of the top things that your family could do together and post this list in view of all family members. Be sure to come up with a unique way to celebrate your accomplishments. Maybe even make time to watch “Renaissance Man.”

Frank Polen is the principal of Warsaw Elementary School and a member of the Coshocton Fatherhood Initiative.