My Obligation to My Offspring

You can spend, and likely have spent, hours discussing the obligations and responsibilities of a parent. After much thought, I have distilled the multitude of possible line items to three simple tasks. Please allow me to list them for you here.

First, I am obliged to teach my children to accurately, reliably and without hesitation discharge a firearm to defend self, home and country. Now, my bounder is a little small to wield a SiG556 and, therefore, this responsibility remains on the list of To Do's. (Note: It is rated as Very Important!)

I thought the second and third items were unrelated, however, given recent events, I have taken the preliminary steps in the training of my progeny. The second obligation is to teach her how to throw a ball, while the third is to learn how to punch.

A brief aside. I have a goal to attend a post-season major-league baseball game. However, there is an advantage to living in an area where a team is struggling. I was fortunate to be offered free tickets to a Texas Rangers baseball game, which I took without hesitation. The seats were great and the family and I had a great time. We saw it all– a grand slam, stolen bases, triples, doubles, etc. We also saw a few hit batsmen.

Now returning to the topic at hand. The game culminated in a bench clearing brawl after a retaliation throw by pitcher Scott Feldman, all of which my daughter witnessed with glee and jubilation. I was struck with fatherly pride and choked back tears of joy while the players were forcibly separated.

My little darling has started on her path toward preparation for "real life". I was elated to be on hand for the first few baby steps.