A Simple Question, From My Daughter

[Shaun Hunt]

Someone might relate to this and get a kick out of it.

We started a family business, acquiring seven properties over the past five years.  Since then my oldest daughter has married, my oldest son has graduated and moved to Oregon, my youngest son has Angelman's Syndrome and we haven't quite figured out the right job for him to do.

That leaves my second oldest son, a Junior in high school who is actively involved in Cross Country running and working as a life guard at the pool, along with a full load of classes. 

Remaining are my two daughters, one an eighth grader, the other a Freshman.

We take care of all of the property management.  We mow lawns, do yard work, shovel snow, do rehabs on newly purchased properties, etc. all in our "spare" time.  My W2 job keeps me busy, my summer job is wildland firefighting working with airtankers.

So, on Saturday, we were tasked with mowing lawns at the rentals.  My daughter ran a 5K in one location and my son competed in the SUU invitational Cross Country Meet.  They were both just a little spent.  My son's shoes didn't quite gel with him that day and he wore two blisters on his Achilles heel.  They both popped about 2/3 the way into the race.

I was scheduled to be out of town for the rest of the day.

My beautiful wife and the kids loaded the trailer with all of the mowing equipment and off they went.

When I got home, my wife said that my eighth grade daughter was a little out of sorts while mowing and had asked "Do you think dad will buy any more rentals?" Mom said, "probably." I think she was bummed about that.

When I heard this, I got a good laugh out of it.  She is one of the sweetest girls I know.

I then spent a few minutes mentioning that her brother, too, will be moving out in two years, then it will just leave her and her sister to do all of the mowing on current and future rentals.  She didn't like that too much.

Anyway, this was a little side note to all of the other things going on in our lives that I had to stop and mention.

I have great kids and they have learned how to work.  I tell them that I'm only going to raise you once, so hopefully I do a good job the first time.