I’m taking a lot of time to delve into the darkness, lately. My children have been hurting far more than I knew. Far more than I let myself acknowledge. Far, far more than they let me see. Now I understand “hurt people hurt people” more than ever. As I’ve been sitting with the children in my life, listening to them (fully!), hearing their stories from school, from home, past visits from family, from minutes ago during an argument they just had, I realized with great pain: my children have been hurting and they’ve been hurting each other.
I know parenting is difficult, but man, I didn’t know it was this hard!
I know this is EVERY CHILD out there, not just mine. Kids at school, school staff, bus drivers, family, other peoples’ parents –they are all hurting!! To ignore it is denial.
I used to watch Roald Dahl movies and read his books and always thought, “Man, no parent is that bad. This guy paints us in a bad light,” but I was totally wrong. For one, I downplayed my own parents’ treatment of me. Once I saw that curtain go down, more fell. There are actually people out there who admire characters on shitty tv shows and movies as if that’s their real character. There are even people who truly believe that our president is a stand-up man –our children are mingling and they’re impressionable. All of us are impressionable, damn it! Look at us, we listen to fashion & buy new [old] styles, we buy into the newest gadgets, we flock to the black Friday sales, wear derogatory slogans on our hats & t-shirts, quote ridiculous lines from movies and reenact negative loops. We are sheep. No matter how you look at it, what most of humanity needs is a shepherd. No wonder Jesus claimed that name…
I encourage you to sit down and get to know your kids. Listen to their fights, listen in on their video games, ask questions and show you actually are interested and see what comes of it.
I’m sorry but I don’t believe that only my children are bullied and rejected by the world. It’s all of them. There isn’t much respect placed on the words of “just a child.” In fact, they don’t even have rights –like slaves, prisoners and foreigners!
Hurt people are hurting people, and those people are our children. We were kids just decades ago, don’t forget! We need to take a stand for our children and for each other and stop the hurt!
Stop the hurt!!! Spread the love, listen to your child(ren) and stop your own hurting of others.
Keep checking yourself, hour by hour. Recognize it:
Are you hurting, or are you hurting someone?