Garth Brooks – Tips to Raising Daughters (They work on boys too)

This is a pretty good and sort of funny list that Garth Brooks came up with to give everyone a little insight on how he raised his daughters.  After all he has 3 so you would assume he has some experience.

This one works for both boys and girls.  He says always be on call because something is always going to happen.  A good example.  The first time I put my car in a ditch.... my parents pretty much knew what happened before they picked up the phone.  It was a long night. I took my car home the next day and my dad wasn't real happy about the whole ordeal... he just ripped off the front bumper and the grille and said "You're good."  I miss that car.

Another tip from Garth is "let them fail" because you can't succeed if you don't know what losing is.  A few months before I did a dolphin dive into the ditch on a snowy road, my friend and I thought it was a good idea to go canoeing in a creek close to my house in Ohio.  My parents were watching us put this enormous steel canoe on top of my car.  I know they were standing in the kitchen with their arms crossed, shaking their heads and mumbling "that is falling off".

Well... the canoe was strapped straight through the middle and hooked on the tow hooks on the front and back of the car.  It wasn't going to go front to back but it certainly had the potential of going left and right.  We get to the creek and have a blast for a few hours until it started raining.  Once we got it back on the roof and started back toward the house, I took a turn a little too fast and it just FLEW off the top.  There was a monsoon going on and the canoe almost tore my mirror off of the passenger side.  After 3 more tow straps and careful driving.. we made it back.  So Garth's second tip works out for boys too.

Garth also says "Put them to work".  I remember my first job at the Galaxy Food Mart in St. Marys West Virginia.  Being nice to people is a must and that tie that I had to wear was legit. Garth says that you have to clean toilets and wait on people that way you can get a sense of how to treat people.

Garth's 4th tip says "Test their dates" and have HER drive on the first date.  Is that why I never got to drive? Or was it because they didn't want to be seen in my 3 tone Cadillac with no bumper? It's starting to make sense now.  I guess since my blue, white and black car with no heat, no driver side window and blown head gasket had something to do with the quote I heard several times.... "Let's just take my car."   What do they want from me?  You can see my buddy is fixing it. It may not look like much from the picture but it looked showroom when he got done with it.  What's with the hammer?  I can't believe how much of Garth tips revolve around me and my first car. Dang.

I wonder what Garth's face would look like if he ever saw me driving down the street in that car.  I imagine it would be something like this....

And finally, Garth's final tip is "set consequences".  He says take the phone away if the grades drop.  When my grades dropped, or I wrecked my car or said the wrong thing.  I was grounded.  I didn't have a phone until I was 18.