DAY 65 – IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO BE A CHILD WHO

I am at parent’s day sitting in my eight year old’s classroom and started to wonder what it would be like to be inside the mind of children and experience life from their perspective. I imagined hearing their silent words and basking in their wonderment of something new. I would know what they feel when they have joy and in their moments of sadness.

Parents have a simple role to play in their children’s lives even if at times it seems challenging and daunting. Parents must protect their children from harm whether it comes from nature’s wrath, another human being or a child’s own carelessness. Parents need to help children find joy and learn not only the basics about life but to also go deeper into understanding life’s nuances. Helping one’s own children to grow into a joyful, self-confident and mature adult that takes into consideration not only one’s own welfare but also the welfare of their fellow human beings may be the most important long term aspect of being a parent.

Most children have very good role models in those who raise them. Unfortunately, that may not be the case for some children. Imagine what it must be like for a child to hear from a parent that he or she is stupid, incompetant, lazy or not loved instead of smart, capable, will succeed and loved. Imagine what a child thinks when a parent wants nothing to do with them or is not fully engaged instead of having a parent who is wholly committed to them. Imagine what a child goes through when a parent has an alcohol or drug addiction that creates a chaotic household with yelling and screaming instead of living in a peaceful environment. If a parent’s words and actions do not create a sense in their children that they are cherished and that there is someone always by their side that they can rely upon, then something is greatly amiss in that child’s life.

Children also are greatly affected by how they are treated by other kids they interact with in school and in their community. Childhood should be a time where they just play and enjoy being young. It should not be a time where they are picked on or ostracized by other kids.

After sitting in the classroom for an hour I now realize that childhood is the most important period in a person’s life. It needs to be a time where each of us grows into a self-confident and mature human being. What we experienced while growing up plants a garden inside of us that can last a lifetime. The question then becomes whether there are beautiful plants that are growing and flourishing within that enhance life or are weeds being strewn about that need to be removed because they have contaminated the psychological and emotional wellness of a child.