Good morning, Americans. It's Friday. Welcome to The Daily Grateful. I'm Michael Kroos.
And guess what we're going to do right now? Oh, goodness gracious sakes of life. We're going to follow an outline for today's podcast. And here we go.
Today, we are diving into the interesting practice of expressing the gratitude for our children and the absolute profound effect that they have on our lives. And I've got five of them. And they're all adults. I've got five grandkids.
They're all under 12. I've got five adults. Oldest one was born in 1980. And then 1982.
And then 1986. And then 1990. Oh, I'm sorry. 1989.
Oh, gosh, Michael. And then 1995. So the youngest one's 28 years old. And they're all big people now.
And they're all living their lives. And I'm not unproud of any of them. I guess that's pretty unique. I'm not unproud of any of them.
I love every one of them. I'll never give up on any of them. I really don't have to because they're all pretty cool people. And for that, I am like so darn grateful.
Each kid that you have. I'm going by the outline. By the way, I didn't write the outline. Each child brings unique joys and challenges.
Oh, hell yes, it does. Shaving us into better versions of ourselves. I don't know about that. But yeah, each one is different.
Each and every one. My oldest one is a Down syndrome person. He's an adult. He's kicking ass and taking names.
He acts and plays. He's an artist. He's a DJ. He knows more about classic rock than anybody I know.
We take him to trivia. And anytime there's a classic rock question or old rock and roll question, he's going to get it for anybody else's. He knows his shit. But so everyone is different.
Everyone. My youngest is a type one diabetic. How the hell did that happen? My second youngest is a wonderful dad of a couple of kids.
Lives in New Jersey. Provides for his family really wonderfully. Just bought a beautiful home. Just an awesome guy.
And then the one after him is my 37 year old, the 38, I don't know, my daughter. Who has, by the way, if you see a picture of me, you're going to see all this gray hair on my head. She is responsible for every damn one of them. You know, she was the most loving, wonderful child until, you know, she reaches that age.
You know what age I'm talking about, don't you? You know that age. Anyway, then she just became, whoa. And she is the mother of three of my grandchildren.
And I have to tell you, she turned her life around. She's fabulous. She's wonderful. She lives less than a mile from me.
I got grandkids like right around the corner. I can go over and like, you know, hug on and stuff. One of her children is extremely autistic and another one is somewhat autistic. They're both out.
Two of the three are on the spectrum. And then the oldest one is a genius. He writes code. He's 12 and he writes code.
Jeez. Smarter than me, man. Just, you know. And my daughter provides very well for her kids.
And she kicks ass and she's a podcaster. Cassandra explains it all. Look her up. She's good.
Kind of following up in the family business. And here's what's crazy. I shouldn't tell you this. I should not.
But I'm going to anyway. She's in negotiations with two different television production companies or documentary production companies for part of her story. And her story is weird, okay? Her story was in New York Magazine and the Daily Beast and a bunch of stuff.
Don't want to get into it. Just don't want to get into it. But she's in negotiations with them for a documentary, a four-part documentary. They'll probably air on, you know, who knows?
I'm not going to say the name of, you know, the places that it could air. Children, they teach us the true meaning of unconditional love. Now, that's something to think about. I talk with all my kids.
And, yeah, I unconditionally love them. And I think they unconditionally love me. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they do. So that's nice.
By the way, three of my kids are biological and two of them are adopted. The middle two, my daughter and my one son, I adopted when I married the third Mrs. Kroos. But they're my kids.
They are my kids. And, you know, I have fun jokes with my daughter. And I said, I remember the day I pulled you out of the womb. Which I didn't, but, you know, I wasn't around.
But, you know, so she was six when she came into my life. And you know how I cemented things with her? I took her to Disney World. Oh.
They always remind me of the joys of simple things. But they also remind me of the joys of very high-tech things that they all want. I have daily reminders of innocence. They open up their depths of emotion with just, you know, when I was, like, really sick.
When I was in 2013, when I almost croaked. You know, it was my one hiccup. Hopefully, it's my last hiccup until I croak. But they were all there.
And they were very, very, very cool. And, you know, you worry about legacy. You worry an awful lot about legacy. And my legacy is them.
It's all of them. And that's the way it is with you. Your legacy is your children. Good, bad, indifferent, fabulous.
That's your legacy. I've worked very hard in my life to make that legacy count. And I would encourage you to do the same thing. You might have a kid that you are in, what do they call this now?
No contact. I have never heard such bullshit. I'm sorry. No contact.
If your child is in no contact with you, reach out and contact them and say, I love you. Just, that's what you do. I, very fortunately, have never experienced that. But I see people that have.
And I know people that have. And it's sad. I've got a friend who's in this business. And he is in no contact with his daughter.
And he has grandchildren with her. Grandchildren that he's never met. I, I, you have to celebrate your small victories. And I'm going to tell you something.
Having grandbabies to hang on to, it's good for my health. Having children to love, it's really good for my health. Even though they're all adults. It's just really, really good to have them around.
By expressing gratitude for our children, we model a thankful attitude that they can carry on in their lives. That they can go do. Expressing gratitude for my rotten little kids, as I sometimes call them, not only enriches their lives, but it enhances the hell out of mine. Isn't that true about your kids?
I'm not going to promise you a Saturday show, by the way. I'm just not going to promise you a Saturday show. But I'm working on making the Saturday show a weekly show. I'm looking for a female co-host.
Help me! See you tomorrow.