Keeping promises
I have always thought that keeping promises was a big deal.
As a kid, you promise to be friends forever with your fellow Barbie playing girlfriends. As a pre-teen you may promise to help your friend meet that boy with the cool shoes. Then as a high school student one may promise go to prom or a date with a guy who may or may not have paid attention to you ever before. Life is full of promises, and before we die we get to learn which are the important ones and which aren't.
For the cute one and I; keeping promises with the boy is a big deal. We still do a lot of pinkie swear promises; which in this house, I may not remember half of them but we do make a bit more of an effort to keep them. Having things the way they are with the boy means that we don't appreciate "pie crust promises" which if you don't know are "promises easily made and easily broken" (read Mary Poppins or watch the movie).
We have taught the boy that promises are like uber-commitments. If you make a promise or a commitment to a person who is important to you whether it be to go to a meeting, going to a Doctor's appointment, or the great friend who comes over after a 10 hour shift tired and worn out to celebrate your Grandmother's birthday, you keep the promise. Even if you just eat and go home and crash....those are the friends worth keeping. They keep their promises.
On the grown up level; the cuter half and I have been committed and promised to each other for upwards of forever....and you know we are happy to be so. I am always very happy to admit that we still love each other after all these nutty years.
However, if we make a promise to someone else (outside of our little trio) we make every effort to keep it. Whether it means picking up the mail if you are on a trip or walking your dog, meeting for coffee, or helping pick up sticks after a tornado. We do what we say we will do and pretty much do it even if we don't want to (most of the time we want to), because we promised we would and you want us there.
We may be old-fashioned this way but if one makes a promise one needs to keep the promise. For us, this week we get to help a __ year old get over having a promise to visit which was broken (there are exceptions- working or another emergency- that stuff happens), but was made by people who should know better than to make "pie crust promises". In addition to us dealing with yet another school stress, some work stress and the fact that the cuter half and I need to go on a serious diet and exercise plan.....we kept our promises.
Deciding to not keep a promise to someone (who btw hasn't forgotten you MADE THE DAMN promise). Then expecting others to pick up your promise does not make for a very happy situation. Especially when the one's breaking the promise tell us that they are "working" and instead fly off to D______. Promises are important in our house, but hopefully the D_______ will be there when one needs them.
For us, family is people we can count on to be there; like our aforementioned 23 year old, non-relative, who came by (after a double shift at work and NO SLEEP yet) just to make a __ year old happy. The people that made a long trip into the area, stayed a good long time and really visited. That is true family; family is the people who are there for you even when your special day conflicts with your desire to go elsewhere (our desire to go to the c ____ is often curtailed by this celebration).
The morale of the story is: teach your self and your children promises are important, in the end all you have is your word and when you lose that....well there is always D______ . In fact, Hannah Montana does not mind you missed her show, the re-runs are still on and it is likely that she will be back on three more times this week, and four the next week.
As a kid, you promise to be friends forever with your fellow Barbie playing girlfriends. As a pre-teen you may promise to help your friend meet that boy with the cool shoes. Then as a high school student one may promise go to prom or a date with a guy who may or may not have paid attention to you ever before. Life is full of promises, and before we die we get to learn which are the important ones and which aren't.
For the cute one and I; keeping promises with the boy is a big deal. We still do a lot of pinkie swear promises; which in this house, I may not remember half of them but we do make a bit more of an effort to keep them. Having things the way they are with the boy means that we don't appreciate "pie crust promises" which if you don't know are "promises easily made and easily broken" (read Mary Poppins or watch the movie).
We have taught the boy that promises are like uber-commitments. If you make a promise or a commitment to a person who is important to you whether it be to go to a meeting, going to a Doctor's appointment, or the great friend who comes over after a 10 hour shift tired and worn out to celebrate your Grandmother's birthday, you keep the promise. Even if you just eat and go home and crash....those are the friends worth keeping. They keep their promises.
On the grown up level; the cuter half and I have been committed and promised to each other for upwards of forever....and you know we are happy to be so. I am always very happy to admit that we still love each other after all these nutty years.
However, if we make a promise to someone else (outside of our little trio) we make every effort to keep it. Whether it means picking up the mail if you are on a trip or walking your dog, meeting for coffee, or helping pick up sticks after a tornado. We do what we say we will do and pretty much do it even if we don't want to (most of the time we want to), because we promised we would and you want us there.
We may be old-fashioned this way but if one makes a promise one needs to keep the promise. For us, this week we get to help a __ year old get over having a promise to visit which was broken (there are exceptions- working or another emergency- that stuff happens), but was made by people who should know better than to make "pie crust promises". In addition to us dealing with yet another school stress, some work stress and the fact that the cuter half and I need to go on a serious diet and exercise plan.....we kept our promises.
Deciding to not keep a promise to someone (who btw hasn't forgotten you MADE THE DAMN promise). Then expecting others to pick up your promise does not make for a very happy situation. Especially when the one's breaking the promise tell us that they are "working" and instead fly off to D______. Promises are important in our house, but hopefully the D_______ will be there when one needs them.
For us, family is people we can count on to be there; like our aforementioned 23 year old, non-relative, who came by (after a double shift at work and NO SLEEP yet) just to make a __ year old happy. The people that made a long trip into the area, stayed a good long time and really visited. That is true family; family is the people who are there for you even when your special day conflicts with your desire to go elsewhere (our desire to go to the c ____ is often curtailed by this celebration).
The morale of the story is: teach your self and your children promises are important, in the end all you have is your word and when you lose that....well there is always D______ . In fact, Hannah Montana does not mind you missed her show, the re-runs are still on and it is likely that she will be back on three more times this week, and four the next week.
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