Teach the children

Children are safest in their mother's womb, yet even there some are touched by alcohol and drugs and abuse. As infants, they lie cradled in arms and downy blankets, dreaming dreams they will never remember. And in toddler steps they tumble into childhood where they run just beyond our reach, dashing out of sight for one breath longer than we can bear, grinning over their shoulder as they squeal and run away in innocent delight.

How they beguile us with their impish grins or pooling tears, growing out of jeans and tennis shoes before the end of each season. They spend our money and time and patience, and if we are lucky, they remind us what it was like to see the world from a shorter perspective. If we let them, they help us rediscover discovery and allow us to learn all over again.

We entrust them to babysitters, teachers and doctors, camp counselors, crossing guards and bus drivers. We tell them:
   "Look both ways."
   "Never dive in the shallow end."
   "Keep your hands off the stove top and your fingers out of outlets."
   "Never talk to strangers on the street or on the web."

We teach them, seeking the balance between caution and fear, to know their surroundings, and never doubt that there are those who would hurt them, steal them or use them.

And as they grow we relax a little more through each successive stage: grammar school, high school, college. We never dream that we should have kept them home, out of danger, out of the public, out of the world - for we could not do that any more than we could stop the school yard bullies or trolling pedophiles or war.

So we make sure they know we love them. We teach them how to get up after they fall down, how to cry with those who hurt, and how to laugh with those who rejoice.

We teach them to make marriages and careers, babies and a difference. We teach them that life is hard and sometimes hurts but is so worth the living. We teach them that the labor of love does not end with birth. It begins. And we tell them that they carry a bit of us inside, no matter how unlike us the are. We believe that surely our hopes and dreams will be born within their own.

And if we are especially blessed, they will stand near our bed when we grow old and frail, and entrust us to eternity as they stay behind and teach their own children the things that we have taught to them.

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Teach the children