Be Present with Your Children – Cherish Your Children
May 20, 2013
As a member of the Carmel-by-the-Sea Rotary Club, I was entranced by the guest speaker Ethel Barker, who spoke recently about her new novel, For the Love of Pete. During Ethel’s presentation, she spoke about the inspiration for the book, which was the phenomenon called The Orphan Trains. According to the author, from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, as the Industrial Revolution brought people from rural areas to the cities in search of work, there was a population boom. Since workers were not paid much, the masses jammed together and resulted in quite a few unwanted children who ended up as street urchins or orphans. Someone came up with the idea of shipping these children to the countryside, where boys were given to farm families as laborers and girls put to work in the homes of the wealthy.
These children were a testament to the resiliency of human beings, enduring hardships difficult for most people to imagine. Yet the emotional and psychic scars they bore all their lives were a burden I would want to spare them if I could. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future by being present with the children in our care.
When we are present with our children, and when we cherish our children, we cannot help but guide them in a loving, respectful manner.