Loving Our Friends' Kids

Hey friends,

There’s never really much great news on tv, but lately it feels like we’ve been hearing some awful things, particularly about children and young people. This has caused me think about how important it is not to live isolated lives, and to create community around us. It’s also made me think about how devastated I would be to hear of anything happening to my friends’ kids - I love them so dearly (alas some of them from afar!) and truly believe in them.

So very simply, I want to encourage you today, don't hold back in loving the other kids in your world, s peak words of life over them and create community and extended family around you ~ where ever you find yourself in this big ole world.

The fact is, parenting is just not meant to be done alone. We need others to love our kids and be there when sometimes we can’t be. We need to create safe places where our kids and their friends can grow and be loved and where they know they’ll be cheered on in life. Some of my happiest memories include times like getting together with my favourite gals and their families while our kids had an impromptu talent quest. There was clapping and rap beats and laughter and we just enjoyed and cheered on our various offspring…it was great fun!

I also love hearing the funny things these kids say (I recall a blonde ringlet-ed little 4 year old dropping the F-bomb at kindy!) and how they’re going in school and where their personalities lead them. I also seem to find myself cheering my friends’ kids on at games and during concerts and yelling silliness out the car window as they walk past to school. I’m the doofussy mum yelling happy birthday songs over the phone and, on the flip side, because I love them I’m not afraid to call them on the dumb stuff they do in my home or while in my care.

I want to remember the stuff that’s important to them and be a part of their memories as they think back on their mum’s friends and what growing up was like in a community of people who believed in them and made them feel at home in their world. As our kids grow, we will have so many little (and gangly teen) people in and out of our homes and cars and we have a fantastic opportunity to create laughter, joy and life around us and for our home to be ‘the’ place to hang out.

I can’t WAIT to see who these kids are going to become and as they walk through life along side mine and all the great stuff they will do in the world. I look forward the 18th’s and 21st’s (where I can embarrass them further) and hearing them on the phone while they’re with my kids in other parts of the world as they have their adventures…then the inevitable engagements and weddings. Sigh…

Let’s think outside our own families and always have an open home for other kids. The house is never going to be spotlessly clean whilst we have kids living at home! Let’s learn to love the chaos and the noise and get used to making an extra batch of muffins of whatever is on the go!

I love the fact that there are a number of homes where my kids are valued, safe, cared for and encouraged....I want my home to be that place too, for my kids memories and who knows, maybe to help that one young person for whom home wasn’t or hasn't been such a great place...

Lv Jane