- Info
How to Build a Community of Parents and Children
- Have tea and coffee for the parents and adventures for the kids.
- Find every child’s beauty and brilliance.
- Listen to the wisdom of the teenage mother, the grandma, the working mom, the stay at home mom.
- Share what works for you knowing it might not work for everyone.
- Remember that parenting is an art, and there’s room for many styles.
- Always have band aids and apple slices and silly smiles in abundance.
- Sing songs together that every child and every parent knows.
- Share what you have.
- Learn jokes that make children laugh.
- Ask children more than their names and ages.
- Rethink honor rolls and gold stars- and find what needs honoring in every child.
- Share the struggles of bedtimes and tantrums as equals.
- Listen to the new parent without telling them how to do a single thing.
- Pass around the bottle of sunscreen.
- Clean up the paint and sand even if your child didn’t spill it.
- Set up babysitting co-ops.
- Exchange toys.
- Share your tricks, and ask others for theirs.
- Let children be tearful or giggly without trying to fix it.
- Celebrate every child’s painting, dance, and story.
- Wipe noses.
- Ask to see the baby pictures.
- Listen to the wisdom of the young father, the grandpa, the working dad, the stay at home dad.
- Share your talent.
- Organize a block party.
- Read your favorite children’s book to all that gather.
- Tie a shoe.
- Tell your most magical stories.
- Gaze back at the babies.
- Learn to make at least 5 silly faces.
- Never dub a child “the shy one,” “the naughty one,” “the tomboy” or any label that narrows who they might become.
- Hand down the clothes quickly grown out of.
- Say “thank you for my child’s ten toes” as you roll up the endless socks.
- Slow down and listen to a child finish her stumbled upon sentence without finishing it for her.
- Find a quiet moment to feel the blessing of sharing your day with a child.
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