ITL226: Are You Just Raising Great Kids, or Great Kids Who Will Become Great Adults?

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on balancing between our work lives and family lives.   Sometimes to get a balance in your life, you have to fall out of balance a little bit. You’re going to have to go over to the other side to get it balanced. Don’t be afraid to move swiftly and make things happen quickly. I see just as many families knocked out of balance by little league, basketball, and soccer as I do from Dad working. Answer the question, “What do we want to happen?” Define what you’re after. What do we want it to look like?   When Austin was playing baseball, it was hard for all four of us to get together. A lot of people would say, “Well, are we not going to let them play this? All their friends are playing. Everybody is playing.” Let me remind you what your momma used to say. “You aren’t everybody.” The end result of what everybody is doing can be a pretty average result. If you think that allowing one child to play one sport is worth scattering your family to the edges of the earth for the majority of the year, you’re not doing anybody a favor.   When you figure out what you want to be, you can get clear on your priorities. My family knows they are my priority. Sometimes, for a week or so, the priority is to lock myself in a closet and write, but that is only a means to an end and not the end. In almost every area of life, it’s the communication that is the key. You can intentionally engage your time and energy to create who you are to your family and create what they remember. Because you can create who you are, and because you can create how they remember, you are creating who they will become.   Tune in to hear examples of how we set expectations during family time and how you can clearly communicate when exceptions must be made. Questions for Andy Would you like to run something by Andy? Contact us and your question might be featured on the show! Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY Email: [email protected] Facebook.com/AndyAndrews Twitter.com/AndyAndrews