I didn’t prepare a snack for my kids today.
At least I didn’t prepare it in advance.
You see, the children I care for have such a nice life that when I go to pick them up at school or from the bus stop, I always have a snack of fresh fruit or vegetables washed, chopped, and ready for them to eat.
Healthy foods.
Like apples, snap peas, carrots, strawberries...foods that need some care before being consumed by small children.
Foods that are nutrient-rich, and time-consuming to wash/chop.
And, as I stopped what I was working on for this afternoon, and went to start preparing their snack (20min before I needed to leave the house to pick them up) I thought “why am I doing this?”.
Of course, on a day that we have activities immediately after school, I need to have a healthy snack ready to go when I pick them up and we’re transitioning (driving) to their lessons or after-school activities.
But, today was just a home day.
A day when I pick them up from the bus, and we go home, get homework done, take showers. Do the boring stuff of life.
I thought “today, I don’t need to prepare this beforehand, I can just cut these up at home. And, for that matter, the kids should help me!”
So they did.
As we were chopping up the strawberries together, I had one of those “Aha!” moments. One of those moments that seem like you should have thought of them so much sooner, and you’re hoping you haven’t come to this realization too late.
So many things we do for our children, we do in thankless silence.
We do without acknowledgement or even the expectation of gratitude.
We do them because they are the things that need to be done, and we do them because we love the children we care for.
But, why?
Why do we do all this without expectation of gratitude or at some small recognition for the things we’re doing?
Is it helping the children that we care for to grow up into good humans if we don’t make them aware of the things that are constantly being done for them? Shouldn’t we be teaching them be aware of, and think about, how they can be helpful to others?
So, today my kids helped me with something I do for them everyday. I made sure they participated in each step, and encouraged them to take note of the time it took to complete the preparation. I made sure they thanked me for doing this for them everyday, and I thanked them for their help today.
In doing this, I tried to bring a little more awareness into their brains. For each other, for the things that are done for/given to them, and for the life they have. I intend to do this more often, and, like all things in parenting, I hope it will help to shape them into more gracious, grateful humans.
Only time will tell.