Teaching Responsibility

I love my mom and dad. I think they did a good job raising me and teaching me the difference between right and wrong. Now that I'm a parent I often look at a situation and find myself remembering how they would have responded. They taught me about being responsible.
Yesterday in Young Women's we had a lesson on order and fulfilling your responsibilities in the home. I was reminded of an experience from first grade (or maybe it was kindergarten...I don't think so but I can't say for sure) that shows one way my parents taught me (from a young age) to fulfill my responsibilities and shows how dedicated they were to following through. I've been impressed that it needs to be written down. So here goes...

I must have made it a habit of being late for the bus, which meant someone would have to drive me to school. We lived about 1.5 miles from my elementary school and about half a mile of that was a dirt path across a field. My parents wanted to make the point that it was my responsibility to be on time to the bus. So as the story goes, I was told that if I was late again I'd have to walk to school. Now to a first grader a mile and a half is really far. But even then, I was late one more day. So, I had to walk to school.

Now before you judge my parents you must know that my Dad followed me the whole way. He walked his bike along side me (so he could then ride the mile and half home). I think I remember crying a lot. I also remember thinking I was going to be sooooo tardy and feeling ashamed of that.

You know, I don't think I missed the bus again.