Raising Good People – isn’t that the main goal of parenting? Good, happy, productive people – that’s what I want my kids to be when they grow up.
Having kids is a big huge ball of responsibility. When helping craft the foundation of our kids, there are a few things that we make a point of teaching. While we know all of these may not stick, at least we can say we tried. Our biggest goal for our children is to raise good people.
When our kids grow up, we want them to know love, purpose, acceptance, grace and global perspective.
We live in the suburbs, where everything appears to be hunky dory. Monday through Saturday our mail lady drops off our mail. We turn on a light switch and we have electricity. The bathrooms are stocked with toilet paper. It’s all dandy.. except our kids need to know how spoiled we are. Our kids need to know about what really happens in the world. They need to know that people suffer and that this neighborhood is an exception to what the world really is. The most important thing they need to know is that we can help by making minor adjustments to our life we can be world changers. This can be done both financially and by attitude.
Our 2 oldest kids are E who is 6 and Z who is 8 years old. They listen and ask lots of questions about what’s going on in the world. Exposing them in an age appropriate manner is a part of our parenting style.
When learning about Members Unite, I knew this would be a great opportunity to show Z & E how a wee bit of money can make a big huge difference. And the fun part? Each month members get to vote on what project they feel should receive the money. The project with the most votes win.
After signing up for the site, I sat the kids down and showed the various projects. This site gave us a great opportunity to have a conversation about how our $5 is going to make a difference. Also about the various real life situations that occur that are outside of our daily bubble. One by one the kids read the descriptions and we talked about the various charitable goods for each project listed. I then let them decide which project we would vote for. The kids bantered back and forth on which to choose.
E loved the project in giving wounded vets a dog.
Z adored the smile cards and the idea of random acts of kindness.
But when our conversation was done, the kids and I agreed the idea of helping infants eat for us was the most worthy cause.
The kids were perplexed that infants could go without the nutrients they need. They asked questions about Zeke going hungry (their 7-month old brother), then asked how they could help. So our vote for this month’s Members Unite project was for the Give Infants a Lease of Life.
Give Infants a Lease on Life
Stunted growth, brain damage, emotional distress, and even death. What terrible affliction can cause these symptoms in an infant? Chronic malnutrition. More than half of Guatemalan children younger than age 5 don’t get the food they need–the highest malnutrition statistics in Latin America and among the highest rates in the world. Thankfully, good people are working together to alleviate the problem of chronic hunger among Guatemala’s children and we can help.
Casa Jackson Center for Malnourished Infants provides in-house and outpatient care to hundreds of infants and young children each year, supplying food, medicine, and care to those most in need. But the center can’t make it happen without funding. Just $10 can buy enough nutrient-rich milk to feed 20 infants for a day. If this project wins, we will provide 20 infants with milk for 500 days – over a year’s worth of sustenance.
The take away from this for our kids was fabulous and it was engaging experience to be able to look at charitable acts that as a family we can reflect on.
Now, we play the waiting game to see if our project makes it to the next round! We’ll rally the kids next week to see if we move forward or choose another charitable project to vote for.
Learn more about Members Unite. You can join the cause for just $25 to start and $5 a month. The $25 goes to running the organization – the $5 goes 100% to the charity of the winning organization!
Other charitable projects that we currently or have participated in with our kids include: World Vision, Love Drop, Kiva, Charity Water and Kony 2012.
What core values do you want to establish with your kids?
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