Being truly helpful30thMay
My mother was oldest of 4 children. Born in 1945 she was the one that had to follow my Italian grandfather to the produce stand every day after school, on weekends and in the summer. "I hated it at the time," she said about the hustle and bustle of the once infamous Yamhill market in Portland. As a teenager she began to realize her sisters were missing out. She experienced the buzz of a lively city, buying direclty from farmers on "Produce Row" and the graciousness of my grandfather, often giving food when someone could not afford to pay. Now she fondly remembers the time she spent with her father, Tony Rinella, as incredibly eloquent and defining for her life. Today my mother is practically a saint as she gives her days to watch children for young working families. A-lot people beyond my sisters and I think of Louise Deis as "Mom."
So many of us worry so much about whether or not a cadre of activities is enriching for our children, we often forget how simply contributing to our families contributes to character. With my grandfather and my mother this was not simply "take your child to work day". This was about survival for the family. For thousands (even millions of years) that was what human children were: fully and completely responsible for feeding the village. Now that has dramatically changed. Now responsibility is only a lesson and no longer a reality. I challenge that the lesson may not be fully learned without "actual need" beating at its heart. How can we change this? Lets all think about it, go pick some salmonberries with our kids and come back with some answers.
Let's do real stuff Little House in the Big Valley camp and much more at a TrackersKIDS summer. Find them all here...
