Nicole Murphy(Visit To an Old Neighboorhood)

I was watching Hollywood exes and Nicole Murphy decided she would visit her old neighborhood she grew up in as a child. She made the statement that she had not been back since she was seventeen.. From this visit Nicole remember having nothing but at the same time having everything. This got me to thinking because a few months back my daughter had a friend and her friend needed a ride home and upon taking this girl home, I realized we were heading for my old neighborhood I grew up in. I been thinking about my childhood as I realized the girl leave right adjacent to the street on which I grew up on and she lived in the house that was across from my best friend house and was the candy lady house on that block. I started rambling on with my daughter and her friend about who lived in what house and the things me and my friends would do and the things we would get into. I realized like Nicole that we had nothing. The house Nicole said she grew up in had a upstairs but the house we lived in was on a one level and only two bedrooms. My mom was raising me and my brother and sister alone and we were poor but we did not know that. We went without anything as  I started to remember but at the same time we had everything. I remember having three meals a day, having fun as kids did, and enjoying every aspect of my life. I know times have change and we have to allow this but what is wrong with bringing our kids up with the same old values. Why do we have to make sure I children have the best of everything and why do the children themselves feel they have to have the best of everything. It is nice to have great things but what happen to those values about not making someone feel they are less because they do not have the same thing. Why do some kids feel they can not hang out with another child because they do have Jordan, Nike or Sperrys shoes on? Why are we as parents not teaching our child to respect anyone for who they are and not what they have on or what they drive? I think as parents a lot of us are failing are children by not bringing them up with those values we had and the mentality that you may have nothing but at the same time you can have everything. I think more people should take the time like Nicole and myself and go back to the old neighborhoods and remember how it was growing up, even though I know some people had a rougher childhood then we may have had, I still think there were people who may have been in your life that help you overcome it.  I thought about as a child how grown ups got involved in our lives, if they saw us doing something wrong they would call our mother and yes she would be waiting at the door, not with the yelling mentality but with that mentality of let me sit you down and tell you why it was wrong. We may not be able to change the world but we can give our children that memory we had of growing up and why it is so important to treat others, rather rich or poor with the same respect and then maybe the world would be a better place. Take time to go back and reflect, maybe even take your children with you.