Training the trainer

I have had amazing trainers (parents) in my life. My mother has always expected my best and was always there, putting motherhood at the top of her list of 'things to do.'Putting 6 children first is no small task especially when you have 4 boys under 5 and come from a family of all girls.At times, Dad would come home to her crying to him that'They are so weird, everything is a weapon and they laugh at every body function,' he would reply with, 'They are just boys, Honey.'When my Father came home once and found me in the coat closet. I remember asking him,through the slates in the door, longingly, 'Hi, Dad. Can I come out of the closet now. after a pause, his response was, 'Curtis, let me check with mom why you are in the closet first.' I quickly replied, so that there would not be any confusion,'She said that if I was going to act like an animal, she would treat me like one.'  My father, who I lovingly call my 'Pa,' a shortened version of what I see as his favorite title as 'Grandpa.' He has a saying on his family room wall that reads, 'Grandchildren welcome at anytime,Parents by appointment only.' He is one of my heroes, always quick witted and giving me a reason to smile. He has become one of my best friends. I love them so much and am grateful to mimic them in my parenting/training of my children. Together they have taught me that there is always hope and that the most important thing I will do is be a loving parent/trainer. I watched yesterday as my brother-in-law Greg trained his son Austin on a Right of Passage  of mowing a lawn, a service they were doing for me, but by next season one of my victories will be, I am hoping to be master of my lawn domain once again.
I am begining to chuckle at myself as the thought goes through my mind, 'All I need to know as a trainer/parent I learned from PBS Kids,' but that is just the fact that for about ten years. I taught parents for my job the 'Reading Rainbow way to teach your kids; View-Read-Do; connect literacy with media that teaches and a real world, hands on activity all based on the same theme and you not only teach others something you can use it to learn as well.
Needless to say, I am bit of a media Nazi when it comes to my kids, even before getting hit by a teenager on a cell phone.
I hope to be as good as a trainer/parent as mine and my wife's parents. Time will tell. I think that my wife, brothers, brother in law,and sisters, and sisters in law have done a great job on training our trainers. My kids have big shoes to fill indeed.
Right now I am being trained by my Colester and Maxman to walk the walk. I know that when I leave them alone together and all I hear is them yelling, "NO!" at each other, where they are picking that up from-their "NO-ING" dad.
On the lighter side of 'everydayness,' I am having to convince Coleman that he needs to wash both of his hands and not just one like I do.He on the other hand is training me to listen the first time when he says that he is done with his food and ready to get out of his highchair. Or else I have to deal with the consequence of the clean up of whatever he should have finished out of his hair.