Setting up my village

Today I’m thinking of the old adage “It takes a village to raise a child.” It’s at the forefront of my mind as I start to see the members  of my village start to emerge.

The adage is pretty self-explanatory – it takes a lot of people to raise a child. A child will come into contact with so many people who will have some kind of influence in their lives. Some will be of the parents’ choosing and some will be by circumstance. Some of them will be people who may never meet the child, but be there to support the parents, which will trickle down to the child.

As a parent, I have the power to choose who I let into our village. It’s not just a power, but a responsibility. If these people are going to influence my child, I need to make sure their influence is full of love, kindness, strong values and respect. If they’re not, they don’t get to come into the village, and they will be evicted. As the Village Chief, I can grant entrance or evict as I see fit.  

I’m starting to notice who I want to include and exclude from my village and am feeling very grateful I have so many wonderful people to include. I can already start to see the mix of people who will teach my child valuable things, love them as I do, provide support and just be there when we need them.

I know I cannot be the be all and end all in my child’s life and I don’t want to be. I want to expose Sticky to different people, ideas, knowledge, ways of doing things and skills. I want her to experience the different kinds of relationships you have with different people and learn to appreciate those  relationships. I want her to know she has a support network, and other people to talk to, when she doesn’t want to talk to me.

I have one main aim in setting up my village and that is for Sticky to realise that while she might not have had the latest Xbox, 3 Ipads or all the new shoes she ever wanted, she did have parents, family and friends that loved and supported her. I’m pretty confident that is the greatest gift I can possibly give her. 

Image by Renjith Krishnan

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