OK, step parents and grand parents, be honest, did you know about these special days on your calendar??? Honestly I knew about grand parents day last Sunday it was the subject of our weekly bulletin!! Today step parents day was mentioned but no bulletin!!

Those two categories of parents and children make up a large percentage of the population of people in America and no doubt in other countries around the world!! With me having been married four times before the age of 50 I got my share of grand children and step children alike! I am proud to say these kids had a male figure they could turn to for life and learning while they continued to grow up and be good responsible adults themselves!!

I say that because so many kids are subjected to abusive parents and in many cases some are pedophiles, men and women, in their own right!! I have always said if you love the mom and she has kids you must love the children as your own and as a legal parent!! Being a grand parent I sit down and count the times I have become a grand parent and great grand parent and any person having attained that status should be proud God have kept them here to see more generations and the glory of sons in their fathers!! A smile of pride should be upon each parent!!

When we see the news on TV it always seem to be a case of another child missing or killed and the parents don't know what happened or maybe they are a part of the situation! It happens way too often for me!!

I read a lot of blogs here and many of us are remarried with kids from both sides of the parents!! The word Step is never spoken in my house, they are all my kids and I'm married to their mother when that was each case!! The kids know their birth mother and fathers and don't have to be reminded who is who in the household!!

It makes for a more joyous home for all and no one is treated differently!! When I see and consider the military aspect of lives in a military town where many fathers and moms are killed in the war and some without ever seeing their newborn child calls for a better understanding of family memberships and support!! When you see them at the crosswalk in school zones you realize they are just kids with different moms or dads but they are all smiling and playing on their way home!!

I think that will be a way of life for many more years to come so be thankful for your kids and grand kids because there is no Island of second chance!! No time tunnel to re-live those years and correct any mistakes we committed the first time around!! Life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once!! That is never more true than rearing children and by the time we are fairly good at it our kids are all young adults and gone from our nest!! NOW comes our grand kids that we love to spoil as grand parents!!

We can break all the rules they were under and spoil those little darlings while we hear them say you all didn't let us do that!! Well, We were much younger then, it's a funny world!!!!

I bet many of us are in this boat together, Ha, ha!!!