by Angela Blair

Created on: October 11, 2009

My son, and only child, is grown so raising children at this point in time is rather alien to me. Also, I'm the first to admit I don't totally understand some of the child rearing methods subscribed to by today's young parents. However, and in retrospect, I truly believe I had the best of all worlds when my son was born. We lived in a small rural community and I was what would today be considered "a stay-at-home-mom."

Being a rancher's wife "staying at home" had a whole different connotation back then than it does today. We raised, trained and broke Quarter Horses in addition to ranching and I was an integral part of that business. My husband rode a horse until the animal was over the initial shock of a saddle and fairly trustworthy and then the horse became my project.

I went back to training horses when my son was a month old and always took him with me. No, he wasn't on the horse but always safely nearby where I could see and hear him. It was imperative, early on, to see that my son was aware of what was going on around him, followed directions without question and did as he was told.

Sounds a little caustic for a small child, doesn't it? In fact, it was necessary to his safety and actually to his very survival. By the time he was walking, which was a little over a year old, he knew not to go inside the horse lot fence, stay in a designated area and what creepy crawlies, like snakes, were also inhabitants of Texas and would hurt him. It wasn't a matter of frightening the child or making him apprehensive it was just the way things were and he understood and accepted it as a part of our lives.

When he was 18 months old we discovered he had a congenital heart defect that would require unwavering compliance with all his doctors' instructions and eventual heart surgery. Had he been a spoiled, uncontrollable child he could have died. Instead, early training and a gentle nature served him well and he's a grown, well adjusted, healthy man today. I really hadn't given any of this much recent thought until an incident occurred last week involving my dear friend Ellen and her grandchild, Marcia.

Ellen and I had planned a day of shopping and a lazy lunch spent catching up on whatever was going on in each other's lives. Although close, we hadn't seen each other in over a month. NOT! Ellen called 30 minutes before we were supposed to meet to tell me her daughter had to attend an unexpected meeting (she doesn't work so it was social) and that she (Ellen) would be babysitting

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