Dad, but I need . . . .

Oh, the injustice. The long explanations and reasoning behind each detail. The mournful pleas and countless ways of trying to explain the same thing. Only to be confronted each time with . . . "Do you NEED it or do you WANT it? Well, in that case, you can't have it." The fastest way to lose it all was to profess the dying need for something.

To the hormone clouded mind, there was no difference. If you want it, doesn't it mean you need it to soothe your feverish desires to fit in and be part of every one else. Of course, every one else had it or was doing it -- that is what it was all about. Never mind the sensibility of each request. The important thing was the need.

How could parents be so insensitive to their children's needs? If they really loved them, the parents would see to it the child had all of those much needed and important things. Yet, in the end, all the kids heard was how much they would thank their parents when they had their own. Yeah, right!!!!

Well, a million years later, here I am and just the other day I about fell off my chair. "Son, do you really NEED it or do you just WANT it? Now, really think about it. What is the truth? Do you need help figuring it out?" Yikes!!! Where did that come from? I swore I would never say or do those things. Alas, the more I "mature" the more I realize how like my parents I am becoming. I thank my Heavenly Father daily that I had good parents that I could become like.

So, good luck kids. You don't have a prayer of a chance. I learned from the best and they say each generation gets better than the last. That should mean I'm just about perfect -- hee, hee!!