My mother is a pretty amazing woman. I am so lucky to have her as a role model in
my life. Every week she writes a new
letter that I would like to share with you:
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A couple of years
back I attended an evening with a teen mothers group through Red Wing
Youth Outreach. It was very difficult for me to be there, I wanted to
pick up all of those innocent infants and toddlers and take them home with
me. They needed to be cuddled, fed, and bathed. The good news is the reason these
young mothers were there was to learn how to be parents. Most didn't
understand what being a parent meant as they were just children
themselves. Many hadn't grown up with decent parenting role models.
Last week I was
attending a very different meeting. A group of caring people in Lake City are
bringing our Packing for the Weekend Program to hungry children
there. Everything is in place to get it started,
volunteers, funding from Cargill's Horizon Milling and a have
need. One church in town feeds over 80 children each
Wednesday evening and more on Sunday afternoons. They have been trying
to understand why there are so many children going without food and have met
with parents who struggle to do their best for their children and parents who
have simply given up. These parents have issues of their own to deal with and
children are often left to parent themselves as well as their
parent(s).
The schools in Lake
City are hesitant to allow the program in. One of the concerns is that
it is not a child's job to provide food for their family. I wholeheartedly
agree. It is not a child's job to provide food for a family.
But when a
parent refuses or is unable to do so, whose job is it?
In this time of severe
political polarization, when we look for everything to be black or
white, right or wrong, rich or poor, right or left, whose job is it to parent
neglected children? Who should provide food for the middle school
students who live with their mom who is a meth- amphetamine addict and
uses any money she has to support her habit? Who should provide food for the children whose parents have
lost their jobs and their home?
Last year I heard a
bright and successful young woman speak about her childhood. She was the
child of well-educated, once well employed, heroin addicts, living on
public assistance. One winter she remembered sharing a chap stick with
her sister - not to medicate chapped lips, but as a meal. Another time they
shared a tube of toothpaste when the neighbors ran out of food to share.
Some of the families
we meet are on government assistance, some are not. Some are two parent
households, some are not. Some own their homes, some rent and some
live with whoever will take them in. Some have been reported to Social
Services, some have not, many don't fit the criteria required to be
labeled neglectful and have their children removed from their care. The one
thing these families all have in common is parents who for many
different reasons aren't parenting.
When children are
left without a responsible parent - ask yourself - whose job is it to parent
them? At United Way, we believe it is our job to ask that question and to
help find the answers. That is why we ask to GIVE, to ADVOCATE and to
VOLUNTEER.
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This made me think – what do I believe in and how am I doing
something to make it better. Now I believe
that children should eat as it makes their whole life better, so I have donated
my time and food – and now I exposed all of you to this as well. I know there are other things in my life that
I believe in that I am not working on.
What are you doing to make the things you believe in more important to
those around you? Are you doing
anything?
I challenge you to take an inventory of what you believe
strongly in and pick one thing that you can do to help the cause – see how it
makes you feel, and see who else feels the same way. I believe that you can only become a better
person if you are helping those around you become better as well – it takes a village.
You have it all & Confidence,
Lyndsay
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