Parenting And The Challenge Of Protecting Childhood Innocence

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Here’s something to think about as a parent …

Every generation has their share of challenges, each generation believing they had it worse than the one coming after. The snow was deeper and the hikes to and from school longer (uphill both ways, mind you!).  We didn’t have an easy life or the new generation doesn’t have one that’s hard enough.  But for the smaller children growing up, they have nothing else to compare their lives to but the here and now. It is toddlers’ innocence and wide-eyed wonder at the world that give us hope for tomorrow.

Little kids, especially barely verbal kids, watch and listen to everything.  All kinds of things fascinate them; the graceful motion of goldfish, the gentle waving of tall grasses, the color yellow, and the bouncing of a beach ball.  All the things adults take for granted, toddlers find endlessly amazing.  They believe everything we tell them; they have no concept of lying, or even fanciful jest.  Myths, childhood legends, make-believe, wonderful fantasies of all sorts and even bogeymen that lurk in their closets at night are all real to them. Kids believe it just because we say it.  Like the sleeping puppy, their total absence of guile seems to last such a short time!  This innocence seems to vanish within the first few years of their lives, never to be reclaimed.

What takes the place of childish innocence?  We can only hope that it is wisdom.  As children learn the ways of the world, this knowledge can sometimes be disappointing.  There’s no such thing as Santa Claus or Superman.  The tiny puppy grew into a big dog that bites if its ears are yanked.  Grandmother died – she isn’t “sleeping.”  And there are monsters, but they don’t live in the closet at night; they are teachers and babysitters and the nice man next door who has some strange pictures of naked kids. 

Sometimes a child’s wisdom is born from simplification. They seem to reduce everything down to the bare minimum and accept that for what it is.  They know nothing of the politics behind a bombing nor do they understand the complex science behind the hurricane that took away a house. It is what it is and it happened ‘just because’. When Mommy and Daddy no longer live in the same house, do children understand that sometimes relationships simply run their course? Of course not.  All they know is that Daddy went away to live somewhere else or that Mummy said they had to leave the home for a different one and that everything will be fine.

Strange, isn’t it?  Even when they know the truth, little kids still have the wisdom to tell it like it is and cope with it, whatever “it” may be.  They don’t have ulcers, drink too much alcohol, or brood about ways to take revenge on someone who hurt them.  They trust that they’ll have food to eat and clothes to wear.  They don’t worry about paying the mortgage; they just put their toys away before bed like Mommy said.  As adults, it seems incredible that we too were once as innocent as our youngest children are now. Then life happened – so did divorce, addiction, unemployment, war and illness. 

Only a foolish and cynical adult would carelessly shrug and say, “That’s just how it will be for them, too.”  We hope our children will inherit a better world, but we know they probably won’t.  As they gracefully surrender the innocence of youth, they inherit the wisdom of the years.   If our toddlers can do this without becoming jaded, angry and bitter, then this is wisdom indeed.  In the end, perhaps they are still innocent.

Recommended Paretning Resources:

Here are a couple of really practical and highly recommended resources for parents:

For Parents Of Toddlers: Potty Train Your Toddler In 1 To 3 Days

This is an extremely practical and useful resource for parents who are feeling frustrated and stressed by the challenges of potty training their child.

For more details about this excellent potty-training resource for toddlers go here: Potty Train Your Toddler In 1 To 3 Days

For Parent Of Teens: Teenage Parenting 101 – Raising A Well Behaved And Fun-Loving Teenager

Raising your teen doesn’t have to be an ordeal (for either of you). In Teenage Parenting 101 you will learn how to enjoy a calm, peaceful, and fulfiling relationship with your teen.

For more details about this excellent resource for parents go here: Teenage Parenting 101