I agree with Ticktock (all her posts). The world doesn't revolve around any of us. For example, if it has been raining all week and this Sat. is clear and all the yard work needs to be done before the work week starts again, can you fault a man for not attending a kids game?
I agree also that kids are made to feel the world revolves around them. And it shows. Frankly they need to learn that they can participate in an activity independently and not need someone to comment on their performance or skills. They need to learn to appreciate the activity for what it is not the reward of having ice cream with a grandparent after each game. JMHO here.
I completely disagree with your example. Why on God's green Earth would you put YARDWORK ahead of your kid? Wow...talk about messed up priorities. A grandparent doing this - maybe...but a PARENT - NO, that is wrong.
Using a ball game for example - it only takes an hour of your time...like a pp said, yardwork can wait.
Our children are only young for a short while. I intend on being there EVERY moment I can for them. Not because they are the "center of the universe" nor the "center of our world", but because they grow up so fast and I can never get this time back. Never again will they have their first baseball game or their first soccer game or their first play at school or their Kindergarten graduation. I don't want to miss their childhood. The joy that is on my boys faces when their grandparents or aunt and uncle or even my best friend (who is recovering from a massive stroke and has a new born baby as well as two other children) comes is priceless. My children know they are not the center of everything, but they also know that they have a family that loves and supports them.
I understand if grandparents (which is what this thread was originally about) can't make EVERY concert/game/recital. However, will it kill you to put your own selfishness aside to come to one to show support? No, it won't.
I too remember being a kid and looking out into the audience for my parents and grandparents. My parents were always there as well as my dad's parents. My mom's parents never came. Grandparent's day at school was the same way. My dad's parents always came - my grandfather would take off work or come even if he had worked the night before because they loved us and wanted to be there. My mom's parents, while I know they loved us, could not care less about coming. Now, I have a wonderful relationship with my dad's parents...as do my boys because they come to as much as they can for them even now as old as they are (69 and 76). I have no relationship with my mom's mom (her dad past away 5 years ago).
My point is, it affects everything in the long run. If you don't take the time to spend with them when they are young - they are not going to have any reason to spend time with you when they are older.
The whole thing is PRIORITIES. Where are yours? Is your priority yard work or seeing the excitment on your child's face when he looks up from that field to see you are there cheering him on? As a grandparent who is physically able and in town - is your priority going and eating lunch with your grandchildren at school on their grandparent's day or going to that doctor's appointment that you could reschedule? (That is exactly what my grandmother did when she found out that her doctor's appt was the same day and time as my boys' kindergarten graduation. I didn't ask her to do it - she just did it because it was the right thing to do.)
IMHO that is what is wrong with the world today - families no longer support or care about each other's lives.
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