Great work — and service — comes in many forms.

Best wishes to you as well!

At Christmas one of the stores has a ‘wishing tree’ where you can place gifts for needy children. We have always bought a gift for a child the same age as Offspring #1 and now for Offspring #2. Last year was #1′s first time choosing ‘his’ gift and we explained what/who it was for and he chose a lovely gift, helped wrap it and put it under the tree at the store. He told his grandparents all about it and took a great deal of delight in knowing that he was giving a gift to someone whose Mummy and Daddy didn’t have enough money to buy any.

My kids have rarely witnessed extreme poverty, but we talk about it a lot. And when we visit the big city, and see homeless people on the street, or with signs, we talk about it. But this way we discuss it without having to directly interact.

On the other hand, there are numerous high-impact activities that older kids can absolutely benefit from. And a teenager’s shock may be no less than that of a six-year-old, but they’re better able to process what they’re seeing.

Great discussion.

And I agree with Pamela, we should all work on having an overall attitude of wanting to provide ‘Service To Others’ and looking for opportunities.

But… In my case… I have a rather odd memory of a time when my parents involved us kids in serving others.
I was about 6 years old, (Carolyn was 12, David was 10, and Janice and I were 6) and my parents brought us all down to the local mission to help serve Thanksgiving Dinner.

But it really upset me… in fact, it kind of scarred me for years. I was an ultra sensitive kid and I’ve always been almost too empathetic and completely overloaded with fear for everything. So when I saw all of these people who had nothing, lived on the streets and looked so unhealthy and unclean it literally broke my little heart and made me so afraid that it could happen to me or my family. For years I remembered faces of the men and women I saw there. And I felt so sad for them and so scared that not much separated me and my family from a fate like theirs.

As I grew older, I understood the situation better and I think I’m still glad that I had that experience… although for me, it probably would have been better to have waited a couple of years.

In my twenties, I actually did quite a lot of volunteering in soup kitchens and handing out food on the streets. I still feel very sad for folks that have ended up on the streets… especially the teens… but really everyone. I can never forget that they are no different than I am… they just had a very different set of life circumstances handed to them.

So, I’m curious Kelly… what do you think about what age we should expose kids to the extreme poverty and sadness around us? Have you ever heard of kids like me becoming so upset from seeing such things? Do you think it was still a good thing that I served at the mission at 6 even though it upset me?