What Kids Need Most in a Mom by Patricia H. Rushford

Author:Patricia H. Rushford [H. Rushford, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FAM034000
ISBN: 9781441233318
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2012-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

Become like a child again?

Capture cloud creatures,

touch the breeze,

and bend rainbows?

Play hide-and-seek in giant oaks

and splash in rainy day puddles?

Absurd!

Or is it?

Perhaps we could regain

innocence …

faith …

trust.

Trust ourselves …

Our world …

To God’s grown-up hands.

A kid needs a mom who still knows how to be a kid and have fun.

11

The Library

The next room along the mansion’s hallway houses perhaps the greatest wealth in the world. The riches lining the walls here “introduce us to people and places we wouldn’t ordinarily know.” They are “a gateway into a broader world of wonder, of beauty, of delight and adventure… .” They bring us “experiences that make us grow, that add something to our inner stature… .”[1]

A desk, a pencil, a notebook, and mahogany shelves filled with books wait for someone. Your child? On the desk is a piece of blank paper. The paper is a symbol of a child’s mind, waiting to be filled. “… a young child, a fresh, uncluttered mind, a world before him—to what treasure will you lead him? With what will you furnish his spirit?”[2]

There were so many things I wanted to teach my children, yet before and while I taught them, I had to learn. I had to learn their interests and talents, their temperaments and uniqueness.

Know Your Child

If you doubt the importance of knowing your kids, here’s a story that may help you understand what teaching a child without knowing him can do.

Tommy hurried to his seat in the morning kindergarten class. He clutched his school box, for in it lay his favorite of all toys: crayons and paper. Tommy loved to draw. He could draw birds, houses, trees, and even people.

His teacher smiled. “Take out your crayons and paper. Today we’re going to draw flowers.”

Oh, good, thought Tommy. I love to draw flowers. Tommy reached for a red crayon and began to draw a rose.

“Tommy.” The teacher stood beside his desk. “Not that way. Turn over your paper and draw the way I show you on the board.”

So Tommy picked up the pink crayon, as the teacher said, and drew a flower, just as the teacher did.

A year later, Tommy hurries into another school in another town.

Today his new teacher smiles and says, “Class, today we’re going to draw. Take out your crayons and paper.”

Tommy does as the teacher says. He doesn’t like to draw much anymore. He sits and waits for the teacher to continue.

The teacher stops at his desk. “Tommy.” She kneels down beside him. “Is something the matter? Why haven’t you started your drawing?”

“I can’t draw it by myself. I’m waiting for you to show me how.”

Tommy’s first teacher kept her class in order. She taught her students to mimic her instead of allowing them to develop their individual talents. As a result, Tommy lost his fresh, creative freedom. Will he ever get it back? Will he be the one, when older, to say, “I never could draw a straight line”?

What a tragedy when children are pushed and shoved, however well meant, into

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