Kelly Wilson
Raising children is God’s punishment for all the trouble we caused when we were kids. If that were true, oh, my, the fireworks my parents must have set off to end up rearing 13 of them.
I know my mom’s view of raising kids would go something like this: You champion their dreams and absorb their failures, and in the end, they complete you and deplete you without a vague notion they have ever done either. In that belief, she was one of the most completed women in history, and her story proves it.
Dad, on the other hand, ruled his child kingdom with an iron fist and believed he had to be in charge at all times. Late in his life, once stridency had given way to tolerance, I asked him why he had been so strict when we were younger. He answered as quickly as if I had asked him, “Do you want to die?” There was a certainty to his answer that made me a believer. “Someone had to be in charge,” he said. “Little kids will try to rule the house, and they’re really bad at it.”
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It is through understanding the contrast of my parents’ philosophies that a person learns how they raised 13 successful kids. Whether you have raised your own children or are in the process of doing it now, you know there are no answers to how it’s done — only explanations. In my book, “You’re Getting Bumped,” the explanations begin in 1907 with how Barbara and Dale Wilson were raised themselves. The story of their upbringing is revealed through the eyes of the people who knew them best — their memories captured in broad strokes and intimate details. It traces their early lives through personal hardship, World War I, the dawn of the middle class and the Great Depression that followed.
No one believed that Barbara, a hopeless romantic and gentle spirit who welcomed the world with open arms, would end up with a man like Dale. He was closed off and brooding, his feelings buried beneath the debris of a difficult upbringing. In spite of everyone else’s doubts, they met and married during WWII and began a life rich with substance.
Their children began arriving, on average, every 18 months. Dale and Barbara’s story is woven through each new birth, multiple moves, changing jobs and an ever-changing world that witnessed the Korean War, the stability of the 1950s, the assassination of a president, the Vietnam War, the era of protest at the hands of disillusioned youth, the rise of Elvis, the Supremes, the Beatles and the stain of a disgraced president. In spite of that turmoil, they guided their children through all of it and more, resulting in 13 success stories that included lawyers, corporate managers, school teachers, school administrators, business owners and a writer.
While reading “You’re Getting Bumped,” you’ll learn how they did it.
Kelly Wilson is a writer, former marketing executive and race horse handicapper.
In spite of that turmoil, they guided their children through all of it and more, resulting in 13 success stories that included lawyers, corporate managers, school teachers, school administrators, business owners and a writer.
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