Kids

I think that kids are the cutest thing in the world and bring tons of fun to those around them. This little ball of joy with me is Richie, my cousin’s son. One of those rare photos where he is actually looking at the camera… Well, maybe not the camera, maybe it’s my wife who is taking the picture. I don’t blame him, I was doing the same thing. The other cutie pie is my other cousin’s daughter, Nerisel. That was the day before having to return to LA and I was asking her to wink at me while taking her picture. Both of these kids are great and are the pride and joy of their parents.

Dealing with kids is easy. I can’t say that I know how to do it on a full time basis since I don’t have any myself but I’ve always have been able to relate to them and work with them. Some years back I was working at the Church’s summer camp. It was my first year doing this and it was a new church for me as it was my girlfriend’s. When the time came to divide up the groups and who would be doing what I was given the youngest ones, ages 5-6. I said sure no problem. Little did I know that these were the kids that no one wanted to handle as they were “difficult to work with” and since I was the new guy in the group they were thrown upon me. Luckily for the kids and me I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what to expect from them. I can tell you one thing, these kids were amazing. I had 12 kids with me from 8am - 3pm until the parents came by to pick them up. I would greet them when they came in, get them to their assigned activities throughout the morning, take them for lunch and then a few moreAfter the first two weeks I was told the “real scoop” about the youngest kids and that I was really lucky that the kids that year were so well behaved.

Two weeks later circumstances would prove to all of us that the kids were the same kind of kids from previous years and that I had a special understanding with them. While I was on my way back from running a couple of miles on my bike I had an accident, where I hit a car in front of me, went over it and rolled a couple of times on the ground. Don’t worry, I lived, or else I wouldn’t be writing this. Now, what does this have to do with the kids at the summer camp? Well, needless to say that I did not make it there for the next two days. It would have been maybe 3 or 4 but my girlfriend implored for me to come back. The kids were running amok. They would not listen to those who took over while I was gone. Lunch time was a mess with the kids things lost. They wouldn’t stay in line or be quiet while others spoke. It wasn’t until much, much later that I looked at this situation and figured out what happened. The kids were the same, their routine was the same, all their activities were run by the same instructors. I was only their leader, in charge of getting them from place to place and to keep them “in line”. So, what was it? The only thing that I could find out was that I never treated them as kids. For me they were part of the group. In the beginning the rules were set and they knew that good behavior would be noticed and I would work to get them special things, e.g., going early to lunch so we were first, getting extra dessert that we would share afterwards, working it out so that they could do more of things that they liked (painting was very popular). Years later I noticed that others would look down on the kids, whether young or old they were just kids. They would give orders and expect for those orders to followed blindly. I wish I could have put my finger on that and being able to communicate it to those in charge. Kids are people too. They are like you and me. They have feelings and understand what is going on. They may not have the same experiences and knowledge that you have, that is why you are there, to guide them and make sure they do not hurt themselves (too much) while learning about life.

And that my friends is my message to you. So my Way to Happiness includes this point of honoring and caring children, for they are the future and they are the ones that will end up taking care of us. For more info on the Way to Happiness go to www.TWTH.org.