Laird Mccabe

[Skrewk]

[quote="Chuckie"]that's all well and good, gives a person hope, keep on fighting the ggod fight, right?[/quote

Exactly!
Them darn kids can give a fella a reason for getting up in mornings.

[Oldtimer]

[Oldtimer]

[Faster horses]

Well, we KNOW what it is teaching them and many have learned the lesson well. It is evident when they don't show up for work, when they don't go to bed at a decent time, when they just aren't RESPONSIBLE citizens in general. Their irresponisible actions reflect what they have gleaned thus far in life.

Not all kids, now I don't mean to lump them together. But far too many, I fear have not been taught self-discipline and responsibility.

I have done my time working with kids. And like skrewk mentioned, it can be a heady experience; or it can be a headache, depending on the kids.

[sw]

How did we get into 4-H after starting out with PPRM? Anyway, just as shrewk said, a thank you from a little kid goes a long long ways, we put alot of time into 4-H and only for the thank yous from the kids and in spite of their mothers. Had council meeting the other night and some of these mothers just don't know when to quit whining about the prize their kid did not get and how unfair we are, but in reality they want us to raise their kids for them. I have made some friends with so many of these kids through the years and it is fun to see them grow up form the little kid with the tears after the sale to the young adults that can't wait to get the sale over with and get on with life.

[sw]

oh yea, I forgot to mention that we know who does the work, you can always tell plus we have a "herdsman" award that is judged in an interview with the animal present. No way can one of those kids that bought their way into the fair can win that. Also, just to see some of the older kids helping out the new ones also proves to me that my time has been well spent as those older kids got the message. We started about 12 years ago having our kids take a plate of homemade cookies into their animals buyer and personally thanking them. Now, almost every buyer at our fair expects that treatment from all of the kids and by golly alot of them are getting it

[Chuckie]

excuse me. i have to take issue with the "mothers" comment. perhaps it's because i'm a single parent, and i don't have the $$ to buy a "winning" club calf, we just have home-bred cattle to work with.

where are the dads in your club? are all the men in your part of the country mute? or are they all just single parent homes with only mothers to head the household? or does the plate of cookies buy something?

don't you try to put the lack of leadership/ethics and morals on the women, ok? it takes two. and if there aren't two, then ONE has to do both. you try it once. see if you can be both a mom and a dad, see how good you are at it and then judge those of us who have to do both.

sounds to me like you're kinda, shall we say, displacing blame on to the easiest target (mothers), while not taking responsibility for results.

i will agree that there are mothers (and fathers!!) who feel that their kids should win no matter what, and those parents should just shut up (but they are usually the most vocal about 'it's not fair'). but please DO NOT lump us parents who are single (by choice or fate), with the whiners in general.

[Red Barn Angus]

I used to attend the 4-H sales to buy several animals on behalf of the bank I worked for. Generally we would try to buy animals that belonged to customers kids but every now and then a youngster whose parents were not well known would have an animal that was not getting much of a bid and I would bid the price up just to try and even things up. Now and then I'd buy one of them and I always kind of enjoyed that. It seemed like the well known parents or the bigger spenders would have the highest bids on their kids animals regardless of the color of the ribbons won. I very much admire the 4-H program but don't care much for the politics of it. Sounds like it is the same everywhere.

[Faster horses]

That was a great thing to do. I always thought some of the kids that needed the better price, often didn't get it. Seems like my husband and I tend to favor the underdog.

As with anything, "one has to take the tail with the hide", as my dear deceased ole buddy used to say.

[greg]

Red Barn Angus... you spoke a mouthful about the politics involved in 4-H..... excellent program BUT always had a problam with the same kids winning EVERY year!! And gettin the best prices come sellin time