Raising children to become responsible adults is no easy task. It is the one essential role that parents need to accomplish to keep civilization going. Hard work, and it helps to know that you aren't in it alone. Even though you may think that your challenges are unique, they basically have been the same since the beginning of time.

It helps to laugh every once in a while. One of my parenting idols, the comedian Bernie Mac, passed away last week from pneumonia complications. He was only 50 years old.

That's only three years older than me.

Mac was a breath of fresh air in the early years of this decade. A raunchy stand-up comedian, one of the original "Kings of Comedy," he also starred in numerous films, was a best-selling author and had a sitcom on Fox, "The Bernie Mac Show," which was where I knew and loved him the best.

The sitcom ran for five years, with Mac playing himself, a stand-up comedian that took in three children of his sister's while she battled her addictions. Classic fish out of water comedy with a unique twist. Often during the episodes, Mac would speak to the camera directly, pleading his case to "America."

The TV show mirrored Mac's real life. He married his childhood sweetheart, raised a daughter, then took in his 16-year-old niece and her 2-year-old daughter.

The Mac man's parenting style was definitely old school. He believed taking care of family, no matter what. Children are to be seen and not heard, and if they step out of line, the belt comes off.

Mac often closed his show by saying "Bernie Mac just says what you want to say, but can't." Yeah, he spoke about himself in the third person, but it worked with him. If fact, it was very funny.

When "them kids" would be getting on his nerves, he would use one of his taglines, "I'm gonna kill one of them kids." Or "Busted their head till the white meat shows." Something every parent thinks, but would never say. We had the Mac man to do it for us, and it was funny.

When he was caught in a jam and getting grief, "Let's move on," was his mantra. Often, he would say "Oh Lord!" when frustrated.

Since his death, I have learned about the real Bernie Mac. Bernard Jeffrey McCullough was a churchgoing Christian who liked to brag that he had "no outside kids." He was a conservative whose mother died of breast cancer when he was 16. Raised by his grandmother, he had a healthy respect for family and family values.

When I first learned that a remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was in the works, and that the role of the grumpy patriarch, made famous by Spencer Tracy, would be played by Bernie Mac, I was more than a little skeptical. But the film worked, thanks in no small part to the performance of Bernie Mac, who was honored for the opportunity to play the role made famous by Spencer Tracy.

He revealed in February 2005 that he has suffered from sarcoidosis, a tissue inflammation disease, since 1983. He retired from his stand-up comedy act in 2007. His character on "The Bernie Mac Show" (2001), was ranked #47 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time."

He once said that "'The Bernie Mac Show' is my life. It's the truth, and I'm not ashamed of a minute, an hour, or a second of my life."

Teresa Wilz, writing for the Washington Post on Monday said "Ultimately, Mac was the epitome of the stand-up brother that Obama was talking about in his Father's Day speech: a man who took care of family, first and foremost, complaining and cracking jokes, but taking care of business just the same."

"America" will miss you, Mac man. Thanks for saying what we all were thinking, no matter what. The laughs were the icing on the cake.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.