[locutus]

WOC, thank you for that post.

A very close friend of mine married the "love of his life" who had 2 daughters, 9 and 11.

Three years later, she died. Mike battled the natural dad for custody, and prevailed after 18 months in court.

No natural father could have loved his children more than Mike did. The younger girl is an Air Force veteran, and now married with 3 children of her own, and a wonderful husband.

The older girl graduated from law school (cum laude) and is now a naval officer.

A good father, natural, step or even foster, can work miracles with children. All it really takes is love.

[winds-of-change]

Originally Posted by locutus

WOC, thank you for that post.

A very close friend of mine married the "love of his life" who had 2 daughters, 9 and 11.

Three years later, she died. Mike battled the natural dad for custody, and prevailed after 18 months in court.

No natural father could have loved his children more than Mike did. The younger girl is an Air Force veteran, and now married with 3 children of her own, and a wonderful husband.

The older girl graduated from law school (cum laude) and is now a naval officer.

A good father, natural, step or even foster, can work miracles with children. All it really takes is love.

I know. I was stupid then. I was afraid a step dad would further confuse and hurt the kids. I've made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life. I'd go back to Jan. 1996 and do quite a few things differently.

I apologize to my kids whenever I think of something I did or said.........

[downsouth]

No going back for me. Those mistakes are just a piece in the puzzle. So are the experiences from societal change. I'm in a good place all things considered with the world around us.

My kids are good and decent people that I am very proud of. My wife is the perfect woman to put up with me. So life is good, I am the bird that sings in his cage.

[shouldazagged]

Fifty was nice---I had finally found and married the love of my live (it was the third try), I was happy in my job, and my health was pretty good. On my 52nd birthday the Berlin Wall came down. A nice present, I thought.

But fifty was 25 years ago, and C3 nailed it, as he seems to do a lot. The good old days were not, in many ways, that good.

I'm the sum total of everything I've ever done, big screwups and little triumphs and all, and everything that's ever happened to me, happy and tragic. I'm pretty content with who I am today, though I wish my health were better and the final wife was still alive. A day at a time, it's okay. There's always something to learn, fascinating stuff to observe, and things to laugh about.

[indy36]

I'd reverse to 1990, the year I started college. I'd work harder this time, focusing on school instead of being lazy and actually pick a major with a future so I could have a true career instead of jobs. I'm so sick of working at a place for 5 years and then the owner sells it. I've changed career paths like 7 times, always horizontal. Staying the same while your friends go up sucks. Living in 'job fear' sucks. Not knowing what you want to do or be sucks. Being too old to go back to school for something else because you have a job and mortgage and wife and kids sucks. Being math retarded sucks. I think I'd have been a great optometrist but at 40 it's just too late. Now I just look to get 'a job' through contacts doing something, anything, that pays me enough to survive and hope I can bust ass to succeed. As stated, my reward is the owner sells the place.

[locutus]

Originally Posted by winds-of-change

I know. I was stupid then. I was afraid a step dad would further confuse and hurt the kids. I've made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life. I'd go back to Jan. 1996 and do quite a few things differently.

I apologize to my kids whenever I think of something I did or said.........

Don't beat yourself up. Sounds to me like you and the kids turned out pretty good!

I truly believe that tomorrow matters far more than yesterday.

[SSGSF]

I have thought about this a few times when I was younger.
I would go back to before I was born. To the 60's join the Air Force and tell my father to be more careful with those barrels of agent orange .
Then he could see his grandchildren