Waiting tables at Saturday’s Bread (a local soup kitchen): I think I was 8 or 9 years old. Twenty years later that still is in my mind. One of my desires for our children is that they be socially minded. While it would be great to raise little Mother Theresas, it’s more realistic that we raise children who are kind hearted and willing to serve and help those they may often overlook….Neighbors.
We’ve lived in our house almost 7 years now and, honestly, we’ve not had much to do, beyond casual hellos, with our neighbors, if that. In the book “Cleaning House” one of the things Wyma had her children do was focus on helping others. I decided that this is something that even Ave can do.
We had some zucchini from my mom: I whipped up a triple batch of zucchini bread, wrapped them nicely, put the kids in the stroller and off we went. {Of course it had to be the hottest day of the summer} It was a lot of fun. I made Ave go up to each door and knock, say hello, and give them the zucchini bread. It took a bit of coaxing and translating from me, but she did it. I was so proud of her. At one point she looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, am I shy?” No, my sweet-child you are certainly not shy.
Our neighbors were excited to receive the zucchini bread and see the kids; most of them had heard someone had had triplets, but hadn’t yet seen them. We didn’t discriminate, we gave a zucchini bread to our 9 most immediate neighbors, even if they haven’t been the nicest. We even swapped baked goods with one neighbor, then received a thank you note from another.
And what did it take of us? Not much. I had a couple of hours in time baking the breads and packaging them, we spent about an hour-and-a-half walking around. I figure we’ll work on this a couple of times a year, being sure to have interactions with neighbors, then eventually work on doing the good deeds WITHOUT the response of neighbors (surprising them).
How are you teaching the children in your life to serve others?