ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Douglas Abrams, author of The Book of Joy, writes this about the challenges families of young children face: “The Dalai Lama tells a story of flying one night from Japan to San Francisco. Sitting close to him was a couple with two children, a very active boy of around three years old and a baby…In the middle of the night the Dalai Lama…handed the boy a piece of candy as he noticed the mother’s swollen eyes and exhaustion. ‘Seriously,’ he said later. “I thought about it, and I don’t think I would have had that kind of patience.” The Dalai Lama’s comment echoed a topic I have discussed with quite a few religious seekers and parents: It probably takes many years of monastic practice to equal the spiritual growth generated by one sleepless night with a sick child.”

And, in an article in the book, Engaging Families in Early Childhood Programs, Margie Carter writes: “Everywhere I go I see early childhood programs struggling to find a more effective means of communication with and involvement of parents in their programs…There is a longing for something more, something different. The longing we feel is about some deeper issues in our lives – lack of time, lack of extended family and community. Instead we have tight schedules, traffic congestion, the stresses of single and shared parenting, low wages, precarious health…

It seems like staff and families could be a mutual support system for each other…”

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