This time I´m actually gonna write a blog instead of boring you with my pseudo-artistic poetry and/or pictures.
This time I wanna talk about something serious. I'm gonna tell you all a story.
The story starts about two weeks ago when I started working as a volunteer for Kids Vacation Work in my ex-hometown of Sittard. I've been doing so for several years now and it is always a great experience. Originally it was meant for kids who's parents don't have the financial means to take them on a 'real' vacation, but nowadays kids from all backgrounds and social layers attend.
The KVW typically lasts for a week or two weeks and consists of theater, games, sports and all sorts of things kids like to do. And to top it all of it takes place in the middle of a forest, so when they get bored with the games or the theater they can go building huts or making mudslides.
By now you're probably asking yourself what a happy feel-good story like this is doing on my dark pessimistic blog. Well, let me explain. This year we also decided to create a 'wishing well'. It was a tub full of water with a bloc-note next to it and some plastic baggies. Kids could write down a wish on a notepaper, put it in a baggie and throw it into the tub. At the end of the day we'd collect the wishes and try to grant as many of them as possible the next day.
Of course, we got some pretty hilarious wishes. Some kids wanted to be promoted to being camp-leader, some wanted tigers, some wanted their favorite superhero to make an appearance, some wanted a sword. One kid wanted the bad guy in the theater play to turn green. But there was one wish which made me really sad. When we unfolded the paper it just read:
"I want my parents to stop fighting all the time."
No name, no surname, nothing else. Just the above sentence on a wishing paper. It broke my heart.
Fighting parents destroy kids, even if the fighting isn't aimed at the children directly. (Obviously if it is directed at the kids themselves matters are even worse.)
I understand every person has moments they are very stressed, I understand no marriage or partnership is without its trials and tribulations and I understand people sometimes get into arguments with the people they love the most.
But every child should have happy memories about their childhood and about their parents. They do not deserve to, nor should be, sent into the world on a basis of aggression, anger and rage.
Therefore I would like to make a wish of my own.
My wish is to implore all you parents, soon-to-be-parents and want-to-be-parents-someday out there.
DO NOT FIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR KIDS !! Go into another room, wait untill they're off to school or in bed, or whatever.. but keep it away from your kid.
You owe it not only to them, but to yourself. Would you really like your kid to someday wish YOU would stop fighting all the time ??
No name, no surname, nothing else. Just the above sentence on a wishing paper. It broke my heart.
Fighting parents destroy kids, even if the fighting isn't aimed at the children directly. (Obviously if it is directed at the kids themselves matters are even worse.)
I understand every person has moments they are very stressed, I understand no marriage or partnership is without its trials and tribulations and I understand people sometimes get into arguments with the people they love the most.
But every child should have happy memories about their childhood and about their parents. They do not deserve to, nor should be, sent into the world on a basis of aggression, anger and rage.
Therefore I would like to make a wish of my own.
My wish is to implore all you parents, soon-to-be-parents and want-to-be-parents-someday out there.
DO NOT FIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR KIDS !! Go into another room, wait untill they're off to school or in bed, or whatever.. but keep it away from your kid.
You owe it not only to them, but to yourself. Would you really like your kid to someday wish YOU would stop fighting all the time ??
