By Example...often the way my kids learn. -By Eric Szabo

I love it when one of my kids has a regular activity scheduled and the other doesn’t.  This automatically becomes Daddy/Son or Daddy/Daughter time. A while back I picked up my son, Gar, from school for some Daddy/Son time while my daughter, Lydia, participated in a school event. It wasn’t a huge block of time, but we had a plan, and if all went right we’d run our errands, then pack in some fun before returning to pick up Lydia.

A few blocks from the school we drove by a woman pulled to the side of the road with an obvious flat tire. After we passed I commented to Gar, “there was a woman back there with a flat tire, should we turn around and give her a hand?"  With no hesitation he said “yes.”  I proceeded to explain if we did turn around, we most likely wouldn’t be able to get to the fun part of our plans. He wasn’t concerned and said we should go help, so that’s exactly what we did.

The detour ended up not being much of a delay and we were quickly back on our way. As I drove away I asked Gar what made him want to turn around, he said “that’s what Szabos do, they help people that need it."  That comment confirmed my belief that, as parents, we’re always teaching our children something, and it made me proud. Sometimes it’s an intended lesson, sometimes it’s not, but for sure they are always learning something.

I don’t think my dad put much thought into the influence his actions were having on me, but I can clearly remember more than one time he turned around, because that’s what Szabos do.

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