Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

I disagree with the old ad agency (Ed: adage) that what goes up must come down. That may be true but what goes down must also go up, too.

It took me a long time to get the down thing right.

I was scared and I am not afraid to admit it. Besides, I am not too good yet at hiding my emoticons. (Ed: emotions.)

And when I finally did get the down thing right, I wrote about it.

5 steps to good self-esteem and conquering your fears

That big slide is nothing now. Hee hee…except for my daddy. Sometimes, okay always, when he tries to go down he gets stuck. And I have to push him. Then I follow him down and kick him off. Way fun for me!!

What goes up must come down

So, I have a test. What’s the next thing you gotta do once you learn how to go down a big slide?

A. How to go down a bigger slide?

B. How to go up the slide?

C. How to throw your daddy off the seesaw?

D. How to spin the swing till you throw up?

The answer is….. How to go up the slide.

As soon as I figured going down wasn’t that big a deal, I had to figure out how to go back up the thing without going all the way around to the steps.

Yup, what does down must go up is the theme of the day.

Unless you’re my daddy. He gets stuck trying to slide up, too.

And pushing doesn’t help much.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.