[speaker001:] okay well I have two boys actually they're nine years old and uh five and a half actually almost six now and they're in kindergarten and uh fourth grade how about yourself
[speaker002:] there we go uh how many children do you have Jamie a uh oh we've got we've got three but they're they're kind of older children now uh we've got a daughter twenty three that's a senior in college a daughter nineteen who's a freshman in college and a son seventeen who's a senior in high school
[speaker001:] okay oh my um-hum I see
[speaker002:] what what kind of activities do you do with them
[speaker001:] well you now they're especially the older one uh they they're into their sports and their friends a lot you know the younger one's getting into it more uh what we enjoy doing with them which we started a year ago was um we go on fishing you know day time trips with them the younger one especially is really good at it he enjoys fishing um they like to go to a place here called uh Chuckie Cheese which is really like a crazy arcade type of thing has a lot of games um and we you know we like to do outdoors types of things with them um
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I just got a bike myself because I'm hoping you know eventually maybe you know for hikes or you know going out along the canal area or whatever to ride bikes with them
[speaker002:] oh sure
[speaker001:] and um you know we enjoy um we enjoy doing more things outdoor playing ball with them my husband likes to play freeze tag with them and and I think as American parents we probably we spend more time than is typical I think uh with the kids and part of that is that they're demanding of it you know they they want our time
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] uh and uh my husband enjoys you know doing those things with them he spends a lot of time with them and it seems to me anyway from observing other families in the neighborhood that he spends a lot more time I'd say on the average than um a lot of the dads do here and I think that's good I think it's real important
[speaker002:] I think I think uh I think that is and and we we got involved really in in two ways uh my oldest daughter I guess when she went uh was in the first grade brought home a note saying uh we're getting up a soccer team and we're getting a chance to play soccer
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh so gee you know this was nineteen seventy three and none of us had ever seen a soccer game so then so then we go out and watch it and she enjoys it and they play the fall season and spring season so she played two seasons in the first grade and
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] was pretty good at it and then in the second grade they said uh oh the coach moved away uh call all the parents and say well who's going to uh coach well no gee you know well we really don't have enough time for that
[speaker001:] um-hum uh oh
[speaker002:] then about the third call they said we want to know we're going to refund the contracts and the money for these kids because nobody's going to coach and think that's terrible so at that point you know you come forward well that started about a fifteen year career of coaching uh coaching administering programs and my wife and I in addition to coaching I think when we finally finished up we were managing
[speaker001:] oh my goodness
[speaker002:] uh as our volunteer time managing a program with seventy two hundred kids in it from grades uh kindergarten through twelfth grade and year around baseball softball soccer
[speaker001:] and I well I think that's really good though because I'm sure those are memories they'll always keep
[speaker002:] oh they are are and and and you know my twenty three year old she's a senior in college and she comes in now and she just loves to pick out the picture book we took a lot of pictures at the time dad do you remember that sixth grade team we had that year dad God we were great weren't we
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah that's right I and I really uh I really think it's very important and I'm very sensitive to it because I always felt that my parents are more uh old school and they were older parents and they didn't do a lot of things with us that way and I always felt that I missed out that way and so I want to make sure that we spend a lot of time doing activities with the kids and I think a lot of times the parents have fun as well and uh you know now that summer's coming of course I'm sure in Dallas it's already hot but up here
[speaker002:] oh yeah I'll say
[speaker001:] well we've had last weekend we had eighty seven which was extraordinarily hot for now but now we're back down to about fifty and it's raining here but um
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh you know soon next end of next month the pools are open the outdoor pools only open over the summer
[speaker002:] yeah oh sure that'll help yeah
[speaker001:] and that's an activity that I you know take up with the kids and we're starting to hit some tennis balls around uh but as as they're getting more fun for us as well and I find that starting to doing more of those types of things as they get a little bit older um but yeah I was going to say what do you feel in general do you feel that um American families are spending spending enough time with their children or what changes do you
[speaker002:] well now I I think that they're not uh uh I see too many uh you I recognize that yes a a lot of families need two incomes in fact my wife's working as we the kids all start college and we're looking forward to the prospect of having three in there uh they they have to
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh both work but another activity that I found very rewarding and I don't know whether you've got it up there are Indian Guides and Indian Princess programs
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] popular in that area okay well what this is is it's it's really sponsored by the Y but it's nonsectarian uh is that it's the concept was
[speaker001:] no no I haven't heard of that um-hum
[speaker002:] that I think it originally started with Indian Guides and uh the idea was that dads are off working all the time and mothers are left to raise the kids
[speaker001:] I see
[speaker002:] so uh uh it it it is a program that requires uh dads and just and it started out with with fathers and sons
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] where they get together in what they call tribes which is a neighborhood with probably five or six maybe up to eight uh father son combinations and they get together and and meet at each other's home uh maybe uh twice a month
[speaker001:] I see um-hum
[speaker002:] uh to uh uh have uh uh games and uh work on crafts and work on projects and and refreshments and you take Indian names and wear headbands and act like in and uh learn a little about Indian
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh things but then uh the highlight is that you go camping twice a year like you go out to some uh camping spot and live outdoors uh in the fall and in the spring and you like you go out on a Friday night and come back on Sunday morning and it is uh it's to force
[speaker001:] oh I see oh that's nice
[speaker002:] uh the kids away from the mothers for a little a little bit and it's even to the point where the host family at the meetings at each other's homes have to provide uh uh have to provide refreshments and they've got to be cooked by you and you can't say mom make some cookies for us
[speaker001:] oh I see
[speaker002:] so part of the thing is when the father and son or father and daughter are hosting this meeting that the week they have to plan it together what they're going to do when they're the host
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and what was interesting I got started in Indians and Princesses now an offshoot to this was I think this program went on maybe for thirty years or so and somebody got to thinking well it's even more important
[speaker001:] I see um-hum
[speaker002:] it's even more important for dads and daughters
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] to get involved in something like this because a lot of families think well you know I I I'll bring up the son mom and you bring up the daughters
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and they don't notice the daughters until they're fourteen or fifteen and start getting into trouble so uh uh because my son was the third one I really got into it with both of the girls first
[speaker001:] right yeah I see
[speaker002:] and uh we just had a ton of fun and I I look back now as I say the the two girls are both in college but when they're here and we're we're talking about and we're digging out the old pictures books and my twenty we took a lot of eight millimeter movies
[speaker001:] oh that's good
[speaker002:] of uh of uh Indian Princess camp and my uh uh my my twenty three year old has has hoarded all the movies now and and and just sets up the projector in her room and watches them every once in a while uh going back to things like that and boy those these are so many precious things that you can't ever buy back and and to answer your question
[speaker001:] that's right that's right
[speaker002:] yeah I I don't see it we've got a lot of younger fa milies in our neighborhood and everybody's so busy out there making a living uh you can see why the well I know uh
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh my daughter who's a freshman in college this year her last couple of years in high school she made money money baby sitting and you can tell by the number of people that would have her come and and spend the day
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh my goodness she went out on one job she was only seventeen I can't believe the lady gave it to her she said she interviewed nineteen people and she was the one she hired this was uh a three week old
[speaker001:] oh my oh boy
[speaker002:] she went to the house at eight o'clock in the morning and and both these uh uh there were there was an only child
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and both parents were professional uh they were professional people I mean he was an engineer and she was a computer programmer
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but she went to work at eight o'clock in the morning and Tracy'd get there at seven thirty and have complete charge of this then three week old until the mother came home at uh at four or four thirty
[speaker001:] oh my yeah right right yeah I think and I think that's uh uh part of the problem now I was uh uh I was in engineering myself um right now I'm taking uh a year off but uh it was it's very difficult even when I worked I insisted on working thirty hours not forty so I was really considered part time and that was kind of difficult because that concept when you get into professions like that isn't really there yet so I really had to hound them for that I was a civil engineer
[speaker002:] what what kind of engineering were you in oh okay
[speaker001:] and it was really important for me to be able to be out in time to swing by the school and pick my son up
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and of course the younger one was in day care but you find even working six hours a day and not eight hours or whatever that it cuts into your time so much and what happens really is that even though I had the time with them in the evenings all the things that you you you know normally you can get done during the week um you save up for the weekend so your whole weekend that your kids really want your attention but you're saying oh can you go play now or whatever because you have so many things to catch up on
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I think that's what you know I think it really uh that's what makes it very makes it difficult and uh this year's much more relaxed
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know and um a lot of people said they've seen very big changes in my boys for the better you know and um I think that you know I've I've done both sides and it's it's no matter what people say it it is too difficult