Ranch wife tails Raising a family

Now that my husband and I have gone public with our exciting news of starting a family, we get asked a lot if we’re scared to bring a child into this crazy world. Our answer is simple: No.

Our goal for parenthood is to try to keeps things in perspective and recognize the good things in our life. Yes, the world may seem like a scary place these days. Mass shootings, pandemics and political division can keep you up at night if you let it. However, I don’t think it’s any scarier than any other time in history.

If I could go back to the 1930s and sit down with a ranch wife at her kitchen table, I think I would be greatly humbled and even ashamed for the things I take for granted. I know that my family will eat tonight and that I will have a job to return to tomorrow. We might have a dry year, but I know that the crops will grow under irrigation and the cows will get fed one way or another.

It seems that our county is more divided than ever today, but I would like to ask someone in the 1860s how everyone was getting along. People fighting and arguing has gone back to Biblical times, we aren’t experiencing anything new. Our issues may have evolved since then, but they are typically based on the same premise.

As a whole, I believe that our world is easier than ever to raise children. I will have to teach them right from wrong, but so has every other generation. Everyone remembers getting the “Stranger Danger” talk; I will just have to add strangers on the Internet to my talk.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly scary things in our world today. But every generation faces scary things and we just have to adapt to our ever-changing world. The best thing I can do is raise my kids to understand right from wrong and give them the tools they need to adapt to challenges they will face.