Our job is to help our children grow into responsible, caring, engaged adults.
We all know that teaching our infant to stack blocks imparts important fine motor skills, taking our toddler to the playground to interact with others builds social skills, playing grocery store with our elementary-aged child helps them learn math and problem solving, and games like Scrabble can help increase our middle-schoolers’ vocabulary.
But when we talk about helping our children grow, we need to look further than our living rooms. By intentionally fostering community-mindedness in our young ones, we’re not just investing in their development—we’re investing in the future of our society.
For example, visiting a local farmers’ market and fostering our child’s budding entrepreneur or agricultural expert extends beyond personal enrichment; it contributes to the local economy and fosters a sense of community.
The need to instill community-mindedness in our children can seem daunting but, in many ways, we are already doing it. Whether it’s summoning up the courage to get on a mountain bike, learning to be a good friend, going off to camp or staying home alone for the first time, as our kids face and conquer these challenges, they are building the skills they need to become great community leaders.
In other ways, it is important that parents intentionally help their children understand their role in the larger social fabric.
As James Smith says in his article about his book Growing Together: Raising A Community-Minded Generation on page 12, the journey to raising community-minded children begins at home, but its impact reaches far beyond our front doors.
Community-mindedness is about developing an everyday awareness of how our actions affect others and implementing simple daily practices can lay the foundation for a lifetime of social consciousness.
In a world facing increasingly complex challenges, we need children who grow up understanding the power of collective action and community support.
– Stacie Gaetz
