As I grow older (now 44) I realize one of the most important things I share with my daughter and sons is to learn to protect their hearts and minds. We, as a family, are tender hearted people. We tend to love deeply, accept folks as they are, and reach out to others who are hurting. The lesson that has been learned more than once lately is that not everyone is living on the same premise of treating others kindly.
Protecting your heart means not allowing young children to be continually with those who disregard their innocence. Allowing your children to continue with other children who are experiencing such anger that they lash out continually. We have many children in our home, and I have learned that its best for me as Mom to introduce them to our expectations in our home in a more sit down and let’s understand what happens here way. I used to not be as formal about it, but when we moved to the city we found we needed to. I call their parents and let them know the same things (talk about scary for my teens at first) But do you know that the very first thing was that the teens and the children seemed to “relax” in our home after that. It was as though the mantle of what to do had been lifted and they were free to be kids again while in our home.
We work hard to make folks welcome. We feed whomever is with us at mealtime, cookies flow abundantly after school. We sit at the table for “first telling” when ever children arrive home from practice, school, or work so that we can listen to their tales of the day. Their friends share with us that way too. Easy questions like “What was the best part of the day?” “What was the hardest part of the day?” keep the conversations light yet meaningful.
Protect your heart….and those who visit you, love on them and let them be safe in your home.
