Yesterday I sat at a park and watched dozens of little children playing. Running to climb and slide and swing as mommies and daddies followed behind to make sure their little ones were safe and protected.
The awe on their tiny faces as they experienced each task with enthusiasm, fulfilled not wanting help from anyone…being free to explore and tackle each hurdle with only a slight touch from mom or dad. They laughed and ran. Running, always, away from the adults responsible for their wellbeing…independent tiny folk…with one objective…to run and not be caught.
I wondered, as I watched them, how times have changed and I wondered how my grandmother must have felt in her day. Born in the 1900’s where men were the bread-winners and women the home-makers and child bearers…Granny lived through the great depression, and the big wars of one and two. She swore that man did not walk on the moon, that, that, was all set up by Hollywood. She was actually the mom and the dad to her seven kids…her husband died when she was only 32 years old. Those kids all grew up and had their own brood of chickens. Still with the belief that the man went out to work and the woman stayed home and raised the kids. But times were changing…
And in my generation more and more women were going to college to become doctors and engineers. Still with the mindset that the man was the one to make a living, and they let, their wives go to work outside the home to help out, knowing they’d still have to come home and take care of the children too.
Well at least the majority thought this way…
But in today’s world…the mindset is so different…the dad’s stay at home to be the care-givers of the children while mom’s go outside of the home to work leaving the younger kids home with their dads. But don’t be fooled they are also working…and it’s no easy job!
Nothing wrong with the way it’s done today…it’s just foreign to the mindset I grew up with. Although my mom was a working mom.
Some other scenario’s in today’s world, is that there are many who don’t have two parents raising them in the same home. Then there are the parents of the same-gender, raising kids…my point is that in my generation and former generations the family unit has changed so much from how we were taught.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing; it’s more of an observation. And what I’ve observed is that it doesn’t seem to matter to the kids one way or the other, as long as they know, they are loved and cared for by both their parents. It doesn’t matter who changes their diapers during the day or who wipes their noses and feeds them breakfast; or who gives them their baths at night and say prayers with them and tuck them into bed, as long as each parent hugs them close and gives them lots of kisses and love…they are secure in knowing who their mommies and daddies are, and that they are truly loved.
Some, in my generation were known as latch-key kids they came home after school with no mom or dad to greet them…some have no dads or moms to guide them…it’s sad really…
It makes me wonder; in another sixty years what this generation’s world will look like? Even ten years…
God has a plan…but again a lot of people don’t believe in God…and those who say they do…don’t really know him…generations of moms and dads weren’t there to teach them about God.
But still there are some who do believe, who do teach their children and if we continue in His, plan…everything will turn out just fine. Pray for our children…pray they will see and know the love of God in a real and personal way…
Moms, Dads…whatever your rolls, remember to make each moment count…because children grow up right before your eyes and all too soon they move away and begin lives of their own…
Life goes on…
One day you will be in the same position I’m in…
You’ll be sixty-something, watching your grandkids playing in the park, you will be amazed and awed by them…running, climbing, and exploring…the cycle of life goes on…
And your two-year old grandson/granddaughter will turn to you, and pointing to themselves’ will say, “Me, come me!”
Oh the thrill that they want to be with you, is unbelievable joy…there’s a bit of you living on in them…
Times change, but love never changes!
Generation after generation stands in awe of your work; each one tells stories of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4The Message (MSG)
–Marla Shaw O’Neill March 27, 2017
