Zed looks like he aged the next 10 years in that one comment. Or at least it tired him that much or more. Weary and trying times ahead. But some of the best.
Hell, we have two boys, and first grade to adult went faster than dammit. The wife brags shell never dye her hair, she EARNED every silver strand she’s got… and I’m grayer than she is!
Nuh Uh!! You clearly know nothing of the monthly blood flow and attendant drama each female suffers from about 12 until late 50s…
September 25, 2020 at 6:43 pm
Steve
The father of a boy only needs to worry about what that boy is doing. The father of a girl needs to worry about what every boy in a fifty mile radius is doing.
A co-worker showed me a photo of his 13-year-old daughter at the beach. “See what I have to protect? It’s just not fair!” I said “You get no sympathy from me. You knew [your wife] was beautiful when you married her. You knew something like this could happen.”
Don’t let it worry you. Married at eighteen, raised too beautiful girls, who at thirteen were both 90% adults. Boys were no problem. Now at forty-nine and fifty have had very good careers and are contemplating early retirement. Raise ’em right and watch ’em grow.
18? We get an earlier start here in the South…married with a daughter at 17, second daughter at 19.
They had to get their farm life vicariously from their South Georgia tobacco/cotton/peanuts/ pig raising Mom’s childhood stories though their early lives were lived on the shores of Lake Okeechobee in the largest ag region in Fla.
Both wonderful loving people who could not have been more different growing up…older one had her path set for boys, love, and associated trouble very early on, younger one no great interest until later in high school and a virgin bride at 23. Teen turmoil and troubles for us with the one, pure pleasure and pride all the way with the other. Both now in their late forties, stable and secure, great parents, and Conservative (older one a pretty radical Trumper, even converted her redneck black husband who wears his MAGA hat everywhere except his Mama’s for dinner to avoid BS from his school principal and full-on Prog brother). younger one a teacher at her Christian School and mother to the 18yo girl pilot/college student/future airline captain and a gentle giant sports nut son.
Nature or nurture? Only God knows, have to do your best and hold on tight…that’s the twisty road I referenced above, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Keep both of them busy on the ranch with chores; valid, heavy physical chores, and there will be no time for the hormonal drama. Mucking stalls, cleaning pens, mending fences, planting, weeding, harvesting, whatever. A properly run farm/ranch is a BUSY place.
As the saying goes, with boys you worry about one body part, with girls you worry about the male body parts of everybody around them. And for twins … eep!
I noticed that issue with my three sisters (all younger than me). Farm work kept us all busy, made them strong, and iff’n one of the town boys got a little too pushy, my sisters could take care of themselves. If things went sideways, those boys would have to fear my dad’s visit to their dad(s) and things would be straightened out. (That only happened twice that I can remember and the miscreants then steered clear of my sisters as well as me and my kid brother from that time on.)
I was going to comment something about how much more trouble daughters are but I raise a son and a daughter. Each were challenging in their own special way.
Oh yeah. I had to constantly pull the reins on my youngest while urging my eldest to experience more of the world. I had an associate that could have gotten my eldest an internship at multiple places worldwide. She didn’t even have a boyfriend she’d be reluctant to leave behind. While very accomplished and career oriented, she just isn’t adventurous. The younger, given the same circumstances, would have been gone overseas in a heartbeat.
Lots of love love coupled with consistent discipline works wonderfully. Girls that don’t get enough genuine love from their Dads tend to be vulnerable to desires for it in the other form from guys. Self-discipline is learned by experiencing imposed discipline. Both my girls graduated High School early as valedictorians and the eldest got her Master Degree at twenty-two. If I had had their goal orientation and self-discipline I could have been anything from an astronaut to a research scientist. I wouldn’t change a thing though, even if I could. I met their mother (my wife of forty-six years) when I was a senior in high school & should have been at least a freshman in college.
My granddaughter turned 13 in July. Every time I see her, I marvel how much she’s grown (and she’s local!). She’s a classic teenager, but she has great parents and she’s going to do fine. When she starts dating (at age 30, I hope), her Dad will be cleaning his .45 at the kitchen table.
It is, actual years 13, but it might be…15. Years in DBD are fluid about 5 years either way.
September 25, 2020 at 6:44 pm
JTC
Yeah, my point exactly. And the growth spurts come kind of…sudden. Yesterday smearing lipstick on, today putting on the lipstick and the pokies…
Twins are so different in appearance…wondering if it is more than than skin deep as with my daughters. They are twins but you can’t go by that, wife is a twin and could not be more different from her brother. I tell her it’s because I raised her right since age 16. That makes her mad but in many ways she knows it’s true and doesn’t disagree.
As for the young’uns no matter which way they go (as long as they don’t go all Skye; little chance of that), as others have said the whole thing comes and goes in an instant, don’t blink! And savor every minute.
In my case I’m now at that point with my granddaughter the pilot…this was just yesterday!
September 25, 2020 at 5:39 pm
GWB
Oh criminy I feel old now……………
September 25, 2020 at 11:13 am
JavaMan
I find it hard to believe that in October, I will be going to the wedding of my 32 YO daughter… Who is way more self-disciplined than her dad ever was. All I can say is that I must have done something right – in spite of the split from her mother when she was 18.
AND take at least one of the twins with him as well.
Daddy-daughter bonding, away from everyone & everything else.
And physical labor, plus skill and strength training (disguised as work)
40 Comments
Thirteen going on 21. Buckle up Zed. It’s a wild ride.
Thirteen and genes.
Twisting road ahead.
More like a roller coaster – one of the modern steel “rollies” with loops and rolls.
Zed looks like he aged the next 10 years in that one comment. Or at least it tired him that much or more. Weary and trying times ahead. But some of the best.
Yes, it does happen that fast.
Hell, we have two boys, and first grade to adult went faster than dammit. The wife brags shell never dye her hair, she EARNED every silver strand she’s got… and I’m grayer than she is!
The difference between raising Girls and Boys is that with the latter, there is generally more Blood involved.
Nuh Uh!! You clearly know nothing of the monthly blood flow and attendant drama each female suffers from about 12 until late 50s…
The father of a boy only needs to worry about what that boy is doing. The father of a girl needs to worry about what every boy in a fifty mile radius is doing.
Get ready – Soon it will be: All Drama, All Day!
How true that is. From one who has been there.
IN previous strips, it has come out that Sam and Skye are synchronized – wait until Kiko and Mari join the “party.”
At age 13, they already have…
A co-worker showed me a photo of his 13-year-old daughter at the beach. “See what I have to protect? It’s just not fair!” I said “You get no sympathy from me. You knew [your wife] was beautiful when you married her. You knew something like this could happen.”
“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it!”
Zar Belk!
Don’t let it worry you. Married at eighteen, raised too beautiful girls, who at thirteen were both 90% adults. Boys were no problem. Now at forty-nine and fifty have had very good careers and are contemplating early retirement. Raise ’em right and watch ’em grow.
18? We get an earlier start here in the South…married with a daughter at 17, second daughter at 19.
They had to get their farm life vicariously from their South Georgia tobacco/cotton/peanuts/ pig raising Mom’s childhood stories though their early lives were lived on the shores of Lake Okeechobee in the largest ag region in Fla.
Both wonderful loving people who could not have been more different growing up…older one had her path set for boys, love, and associated trouble very early on, younger one no great interest until later in high school and a virgin bride at 23. Teen turmoil and troubles for us with the one, pure pleasure and pride all the way with the other. Both now in their late forties, stable and secure, great parents, and Conservative (older one a pretty radical Trumper, even converted her redneck black husband who wears his MAGA hat everywhere except his Mama’s for dinner to avoid BS from his school principal and full-on Prog brother). younger one a teacher at her Christian School and mother to the 18yo girl pilot/college student/future airline captain and a gentle giant sports nut son.
Nature or nurture? Only God knows, have to do your best and hold on tight…that’s the twisty road I referenced above, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
Keep both of them busy on the ranch with chores; valid, heavy physical chores, and there will be no time for the hormonal drama. Mucking stalls, cleaning pens, mending fences, planting, weeding, harvesting, whatever. A properly run farm/ranch is a BUSY place.
As the saying goes, with boys you worry about one body part, with girls you worry about the male body parts of everybody around them. And for twins … eep!
I noticed that issue with my three sisters (all younger than me). Farm work kept us all busy, made them strong, and iff’n one of the town boys got a little too pushy, my sisters could take care of themselves. If things went sideways, those boys would have to fear my dad’s visit to their dad(s) and things would be straightened out. (That only happened twice that I can remember and the miscreants then steered clear of my sisters as well as me and my kid brother from that time on.)
Start the girls working for endurance strength.
Have Naomi start training them.
Zed, time to start cleaning the shotgun whenever some “body” comes sniffing around.
That is going to be the cleanest shotgun in South Texas!
Also, shotgun pellets don’t leave rifling traces.
Yep, you tell ’em, “I’ve got a shotgun, a shovel, and a REALLY big back yard” nuff said.
“And Tabasco”.
(can’t forget Tabasco)
I was going to comment something about how much more trouble daughters are but I raise a son and a daughter. Each were challenging in their own special way.
Oh yeah. I had to constantly pull the reins on my youngest while urging my eldest to experience more of the world. I had an associate that could have gotten my eldest an internship at multiple places worldwide. She didn’t even have a boyfriend she’d be reluctant to leave behind. While very accomplished and career oriented, she just isn’t adventurous. The younger, given the same circumstances, would have been gone overseas in a heartbeat.
Lots of love love coupled with consistent discipline works wonderfully. Girls that don’t get enough genuine love from their Dads tend to be vulnerable to desires for it in the other form from guys. Self-discipline is learned by experiencing imposed discipline. Both my girls graduated High School early as valedictorians and the eldest got her Master Degree at twenty-two. If I had had their goal orientation and self-discipline I could have been anything from an astronaut to a research scientist. I wouldn’t change a thing though, even if I could. I met their mother (my wife of forty-six years) when I was a senior in high school & should have been at least a freshman in college.
My granddaughter turned 13 in July. Every time I see her, I marvel how much she’s grown (and she’s local!). She’s a classic teenager, but she has great parents and she’s going to do fine. When she starts dating (at age 30, I hope), her Dad will be cleaning his .45 at the kitchen table.
Please summarize the timeline. How time in Day-by-Day years have elapsed since the girls were born?
Rod Sterling’s voice…
“imagine a time and place where time has no connection to place..”
Yeah it’s a whole ‘n
other dimension there at the ranch.
Wrote Serling but iPhone had other ideas the little Nazi…
13 actually
Really? Damn. Still, as to the timeline? Let’s just say it’s a little bit…variable.
It is, actual years 13, but it might be…15. Years in DBD are fluid about 5 years either way.
Yeah, my point exactly. And the growth spurts come kind of…sudden. Yesterday smearing lipstick on, today putting on the lipstick and the pokies…
Twins are so different in appearance…wondering if it is more than than skin deep as with my daughters. They are twins but you can’t go by that, wife is a twin and could not be more different from her brother. I tell her it’s because I raised her right since age 16. That makes her mad but in many ways she knows it’s true and doesn’t disagree.
As for the young’uns no matter which way they go (as long as they don’t go all Skye; little chance of that), as others have said the whole thing comes and goes in an instant, don’t blink! And savor every minute.
In my case I’m now at that point with my granddaughter the pilot…this was just yesterday!
Oh criminy I feel old now……………
I find it hard to believe that in October, I will be going to the wedding of my 32 YO daughter… Who is way more self-disciplined than her dad ever was. All I can say is that I must have done something right – in spite of the split from her mother when she was 18.
Zed needs to spend some time working on the fences certain times in the month
AND take at least one of the twins with him as well.
Daddy-daughter bonding, away from everyone & everything else.
And physical labor, plus skill and strength training (disguised as work)