Tag Archive for children

Kids Are Not Good Business

This morning’s news brought a disturbing statistic: 1 in 3 American children are homeless, and 2 1/2 MILLION kids were without a home sometime during last year–so says the National Center for Family and Homelessness.  (For details, read the article in The Guardian.)   The two main causes are the impact of domestic violence and lack of affordable housing.

It’s this second cause that shouldn’t exist.  In the same news I learned that Candlestick Park in San Francisco is slated to become a luxury shopping center, hotel, and housing.  You can bet it won’t be affordable housing!  San Francisco is doing the same kind of project there that they’ve done at Hunter’s Point and the shipping yard.  The argument for the Candlestick Park venture is that it will create 3000 permanent jobs.  I can’t help wondering, though, where those service and hotel workers filling those jobs will live.  They won’t earn enough to live at that complex or anywhere else in pricey San Francisco, or down the road in nearby cities, either.  If they’re among the many under-employed homeless people, they can’t put a roof over their children’s heads.

I’d like to see the $1 BILLION this project will cost put into something more practical and humane.  We can live without another upscale shopping center, hotel, and fancy condos.  But how long can our kids survive living on the streets?

Oh, I forgot.  That wouldn’t be good business.

 

 

How to Spend that Upcoming Extra Hour

Let’s plan ahead for Sunday, when we turn our clocks back an hour.  What will we do with the extra hour we’ve gained?  Why not share it with someone who doesn’t necessarily consider time a friend, like that neighbor or acquaintance who is too ill or shy to get out much.  We can spend time feeding hungry families at a kitchen, gathering food for local food pantries that serve them, visiting veterans at the VA, bringing a picnic lunch and conversation to Aunt Sally at the nursing home.  Or give that extra hour exclusively to our children, playing, reading, or just being together.  Or nurture our marriage with an uninterrupted hour together, being present to each other. Through that one hour, we won’t let stress, overwork, or other pressures interfere with our relationships. In short, rather than waste that morsel of extra time, we can use it to live life more fully, sharing our time and selves with others.

 

 

“Grow up!” says God

So many people say that God has told them what He demands to be done in order to honor and obey Him: kill all non-believers; convert people to your concept of Him, and do so by whatever means necessary; enslave people of specific ethnic groups or gender; kill people who kill others (except, of course, when in the process of “cleansing” the Earth); occupy land because He promised you a homeland, then proclaim it as the specific location He promised; treat people of different religious beliefs as inferior and misguided; and interpret the Koran or Bible or whatever your holy book is to support such actions.

Well, God talks to me, too, and I hear Him saying this:  What I really want is peace among all My children.   Grow up, people, and work on getting along rather than destroying My creation!

 

 

Focus on Kids, not Parental Sexual Orientation

Why (according to a University of Melbourne study) are kids of same-sex parents healthier?  One possibility cited is that same-sex families tend to get along better.  Another is that because same-sex parents are likely to share more child-rearing duties, basing them on skills rather than traditional gender roles, the children grow up in a more harmonious household.  These factors lead to increased health for a child.

But how about in other areas–temperament, behavior, mental health, emotional role, and self-esteem?  Those children scored the same as ones in the general population.  Except that kids with same-sex parents suffered due to the stigma of their parents’ sexual orientation.

What hurts most, apparently, is a child’s growing up in a single-parent household, especially with as single mother, who tends to struggle more financially than a single father.

In my opinion, this shows that a child thrives best in a home in which parents work at their marriage, share their talents in caring for a child, and maintain a harmonious household, whatever the sexual orientation of the parents.  No sensible person believes anymore–considering all the studies and anecdotal evidence–that homosexual parents raise children to be homosexual.  So why not concentrate on how kids are being raised and not add stress to their lives by focusing on what their parents do in the bedroom?

 Read about the study at http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/children-same-sex-parents-are-healthier-study-n149901.

Speak Up To Help Children

Picture this: You’re 20 and working hard at a job you’ve had since age 14.  In fact, 14-year-olds and younger work by your side.  Bathroom visits must be quick or you’re physically and verbally abused.  Your hours are from 8:00 am to midnight, sometimes to 3:00 am, seven days a week, with no days off.  You may make $125 a month or not be paid if the factory’s goal isn’t met.  You know that the building’s structure is weak but try to ignore the danger, because your family needs the income you earn.  Finally, one day, it collapses, killing some workers, trapping you under rubble for twelve hours and injuring you to the point that you can’t return to that job but must find little jobs here and there, where you (and you weakened body) can.

This is Rana Plaza’s story, and the story of countless others in places where clothing is made to be sold cheaply in our Walmarts, Children’s Places, and other discount stores.  In other words, the pennies that we save buying those items bring misery to children and adults in other parts of the world.

True, if we just stop buying those items people lose their livelihoods.  However, we can demand safer, fairer conditions for workers by raising our voices.  Walmart has to listen if we shout loud enough; they’ve had so many black eyes from their civil rights violations NOT to listen, as they’re currently trying to rebuild a more positive image.

Read Rava’s story–which mirrors millions of children’s stories–at Credo’s website. While you’re there, make your voice heard by signing the petition to Walmart and Children’s Place.

 

 

Why God Made Moms

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

 

Why did God make mothers?                                                                                        1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.                                                       2. Mostly to clean the house.                                                                                        3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

 

How did God make mothers?                                                                                        1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.                                                                           2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.                                                                3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

 

What ingredients are mothers made of?                                                                              1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world — and one dab of mean.                                                                                     2. They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

 

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?                                1. We’re related.                                                                                                              2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s mom like me.

 

What kind of a little girl was your mom?                                                                                 1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.                                2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.          3. They say she used to be nice.

 

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?                               1. His last name.                                                                                                              2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?                                                                                                   3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

 

Why did your mom marry your dad?                                                                           1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.               2. She got too old to do anything else with him.                                                         3. My grandma says that mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.

 

Who’s the boss at your house?                                                                                       1. Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.        2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.             3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

 

What’s the difference between moms and dads?                                                          1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.                   2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.                                                3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.                                                          4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

 

What does your mom do in her spare time?                                                               1. Mothers don’t do spare time.                                                                                               2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

 

What would it take to make your mom perfect?                                                         1. On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.                                                                                                          2. Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.

 

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?                                1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.     2. I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.                                                                                                                            3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

 

[Thanks to my friend Linda Younts for sending me this. Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms and women who have been like a mother to someone.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pit Bulls

My grand-dogs are pit bulls.  That’s probably what has led me to question inborn evil in the breed.  They get all the bad press.  Admittedly, many truly are vicious and unpredictable, thanks to humans who’ve trained previous generations to fight.  Yet, humans used to consider the pit a dog people admired, and they were often thought of as the perfect companion for children.

I found an interesting article  “10 Things You Never Knew About Pit Bulls.”  It tells some history of the breed (including serving in the military), interesting facts (like how likely it is you’ll be killed by one), and what happens to those who end up in shelters.  Go to www.care2.com/greenliving/10-things-you-never-knew-about-pit-bulls.html and read for yourself.

 

Photo

[One of my grand-dogs cuddling my grand-dog-to-be.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughtful Thursday: How Children Learn From Us

An EXAMPLE of good advice: