Kids need to love the earth before they can save it
March 1, 2012
Tags: parenting, radical homemaking
Saoirse and Ula are no strangers to four letter words. They’re growing up with farmers, for crying out loud. And no self-respecting farmer around Schoharie County is going to doll up the natural functions of nature with cutesy euphemisms or scientific jargon. When Saoirse was one, we tried cleaning up our language a bit, but her Grandmother swears like a trucker, and her Great Grandfather was adamant that such language was best learned at home. So we gave up. We just tell the girls “those are grown up words. When you’re old enough to know how to use them properly, you can use ‘em, too.”
Thus, it’s rather amusing when people come to the farm and say things like “I’ve got s-h-i-t on my shoes” (I do believe most 8-year-olds, and even a lot of 4 year olds can decipher s-h-i-t). If they have linguistic slips around my children, most people are quickly apologetic, and often turn crimson with embarrassment.
Yet very few people think twice about walking into the kitchen, pulling up a chair, and saying things like “this world is going to h-e-double hockey sticks. If the earth’s temperature rises just a few more degrees, that’ll be the end of the human race!”
Okay, call me weird. I really don’t care if you say “hell” in front of my children. But it seriously irks me that grown ups don’t consider the trauma they’re inflicting on worried young minds by suggesting to them that their lives, and all the beautiful nature that feeds their souls, are inevitably coming to an end.
The remainder of this essay has been removed for editing and inclusion in Shannon Hayes’ forthcoming book, Homespun Mom Comes Unraveled.
Comments
March 2, 2012 1:56 AM EST Edit
Thanks for addressing this. I didn’t realize until recently how much all the adult complaints and conjecture about climate change, overpopulation and impending planetary doom was negatively affecting my younger son. It wasn’t just swirling above his head; he was absorbing it and it was filling him with apprehension about the future. A future that, for him, should still be full of bright hope. I am now much more aware of not only what I say to him, but the importance of mitigating the fear-filled statements of others.
– Amy
March 2, 2012 6:43 AM EST Edit
Thanks, Amy. I do think fear can be a waste of time. I’d rather skip to the point and empower my kids to adapt, rather than expose them to fear.
– Shannon Hayes
March 5, 2012 3:00 PM EST Edit
Well said. I have to say that I’m guilty as charged on the count of negativity about this issue. I do teach my daughter the same as you- that we have the power and responsibility to do better. I’m in the middle of reading your book and find your words positive and inspiring. To find the positive in our culture and in our lives is so much more important than the worry and fear that many find themselves drowning in.
– Laura Smith
March 5, 2012 5:37 PM EST Edit
Nice thoughts. Create what you want and move away from what you don’t. seems simple even for a dumb shit like me.
– The Grass Whisperer
March 7, 2012 10:22 PM EST Edit
I appreciate your perspective. Hadn’t thought about it before, but my eight year old son repeatedly points out when a speech/ movie/ book is too doomsday in it’s mentality. He gets really bothered. We do share the “that’s why we…” statements, maybe more than necessary though. Thanks, Shannon!
– heidi
April 22, 2012 1:44 PM EDT Edit
This sort of compassion, this ordinary adult responsibility for the wellbeing of children has been sorely missing from the ‘debate’ about climate change. I put ‘debate’ in quotes because I don’t really think there has been anything like an adequate one, despite some zealots telling me ‘the debate is over’ or ‘the science is settled’. I have yet to see any convincing argument for alarm over climate and CO2, and of course, no evidence for it because there isn’t any – the alarm is entirely based on what computer models tell us might happen. Computer models agreed by all and sundry to be unfit for prediction. I will add a link to your essay in my collection of reports of children being exposed to anxiety about climate change (at Climatelessons.blogspot)
– John Shade
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