I find myself often quoting this lovely African proverb when trying to encourage families who struggle occasionally with the many demands and frustrations of bringing up children. We were never meant to try and do it on our own! The proverb recognises that parenting is a shared responsibility – it happens in community; with the community. It is not just the responsibility of parents or grandparents, but of the extended family; uncles, aunts, cousins, neighbours and friends can all be involved and all have a part to play.
We can learn a lot from this, especially as nowadays it is so common for many of us not to have close family just around the corner. We need to reach out to our wider community and create our ‘village’. And actually, it is not only a great example for those of us with children – we need to be looking out for each other and supporting each other whatever our age and stage of life.
Maybe, in our culture, we find this hard – but how do we manage this when we are all ‘locked down?! Not seeing our friends and family face to face, the people we feel connected with and usually rely on for our support, has been really tough, hasn’t it? But we are finding new ways to connect; sharing a smile as we pass each other on our daily walk, putting a note or a child’s drawing through the door of our shielded neighbour, thinking about the needs of others as we do our basic grocery shopping; learning to use technology to share our ‘everyday’ moments not just the ‘extra-ordinary’ moments with our loved ones. See it is possible to keep building and extending our ‘village’ – even in lock-down.
Be encouraged! We are in this together.
If I can help you with any of this, I am here to love you and serve you. Just get in touch, just click HERE.
This week’s HubKids has lots of fun activities around this same theme. It’s a great chance to find new ways of connecting together.
CLICK HERE for some fun activities to do with your family, and the link to our YouTube video
Useful Local Community Information Update
If you have not seen what else we’ve been up to at the Hub this week check out Community Hub Response Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/communityhubresponse/
