Raising men and women

In the echoes of my daughter coughing at 1am, I can hear her sneaking in the front door from a night at the movies, an hour later than she said she would be. In the hazy streetlight peeking through my sleeping almost two-year son's window, I see a barely arousable teenager luxuriating in a lazy Sunday morning. It hits me that being pregnant and anticipating these warm cherubic babies was not exactly the point. Although this is an incredibly adorable time sprinkled here and there with the frustrations of sleep arrangements, demands for specific stuffed friends and toilet habits, this is not really the meat of what reproduction is all about.

We are raising men and women.  The hands into which we leave our earth, the users, preservers or consumers of what fruitful years are left without leaking ozones and dripping glaciers. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day slog of pickup, dropoff, drooling, spilled soup and wearing enough layers. My two little doe-eyed sponges are soaking it all in. It's my responsibility to be an active, graceful participant in their social and emotional development. The how and whys of learning the days of the week and using a fork matter but maybe not as much. I will blink and my children will be grown, with fierce opinions and curious minds and I am laying the groundwork now for their moral compass.

Of late I have been reflecting about our brief cameo in the expanse of time. We need to make it good. We need to raise good humans that will promote others to be the same. I don't want a nation of gimme-gimme mini Drumpfs. How are we here? How did the beckoning eyes of our Statue of Liberty become so ignored? Are we a nation of hateful, hairspray-ed, gun-wielding, racist, uneducated fools who shun diversity?NO. NO. There is a chance.

 It starts here, in this moment when maybe you huff at the cashier for fumbling with your change. When you drive past your garbage man, your mailman, your local crossing guard and don't give a warm nod of acknowledgement, that we are all doing this. THIS. Being human and that at our core we are chemically, genetically the same. Separated maybe just by the good fortune of being born to a family with rich real estate roots, or the bad fortune of being born at a time when your country is ravaged by war. What good comes of teaching our children to hate our neighbors and turn our backs on refugees? I imagine most mothers show their toddlers how to share on the playground, to take turns on the swings, to call for help when a child is lost. As adults it isn't that different, the same rules apply. Shove shove and me first and stealing all the sand in the sandbox looks bad at any age. 

In this moment. Now. For parents and uncles and honorary aunties of young kiddos. Let's teach them that we are a global society, flesh and bone inhabiting one earth. All with hopes and dreams for our warm sleeping babies. All with an incredible opportunity to shape human interaction. This culture of hate and anger isn't sustainable and I don't want my children growing up in a world that doesn't even abide by the basic rules of the playground. 

Xo,

M