Protecting our Young – Nurturing Innocence

I find nothing more beguiling than to see a father hold a baby in his arms with tenderness and awe. Built into the fascination we have with babies is our innate need to protect and nurture those who are most dependent on us and on whom we rely for the continuance of our species. Who we become and how we evolve as human beings requires us to be guardians of and spokespersons for our children. This is especially vital during their formative years. If we leave the raising of our children to external forces, then we forgo our greatest responsibility: to ourselves, our children, and the future of our civilisation.

Our children are very sensitive beings, and when we expect them to toughen up or be grown-ups before their time, or when we don’t respect and embrace their innocence, we abuse their right to grow up as nature intended. Little boys are meant to be little boys. They’ll become men soon enough. Little girls are meant to be little girls, not little women or sex symbols!

For decades our young people have shown us that they’re hurting. They show that the world they’re living in, driven by ‘Cradle To The Grave’ fear-based marketing and consumerism, is not meeting their most basic need for safety and a feeling of self-worth separate to how they look and what they have. Even children whose behaviour suggests otherwise are telling us we haven’t paid attention to what it is they need to be taught. For instance, they need to be taught about boundaries. They also need empathy and compassion to bring out the best in themselves.

While there is so much we are powerless to control, what we can control are the values we raise our children with. We can also control the reality we create by our action or inaction in service of what is in their best interest as the youngest members of society. The greatest ‘threat to our survival’ may not be what’s going on ‘out there’. Instead, it may be what goes on inside each of us, and inside our homes and schools if we fail to recognise that we can make a difference.

Before our children reach the age when their parents’ opinions are superseded by those of their peers, we need to ensure we have given them the kind of foundation that inoculates them against the pressures of a world ‘gone mad’. We need to build their trust in and respect for us. They need to know that we are the ‘big ones’ and that we are up for the job before us (daunting as that is). Importantly, they can count on us to take the right action and be positive role models of what it means to be human. To do that, we must relinquish the need to be liked or popular. We must also speak up when something doesn’t work, rather than adding to the disregard for innocence.

Our young people are here for a purpose far greater than that to which many have fallen prey. And it is in their alienation from their destiny (which, on some level, they know) that, by focusing on small, self-absorbed goals, some of their frustration and anger stem. We need to give our kids a sense of dignity and purpose, and an experience that they are here for a reason. This fosters their appreciation of who they really are and fuels a self-respect and self-trust which protects them from potentially devastating risk-taking behaviours.

As Trisha Broadbridge, the former Young Australian of the Year, said, “What people don’t understand about us is that we know we can do anything!” This speaks of young people who want to be part of the solution, who know they can take their place in the world, and who sense something on the horizon that alerts them to the need to act now in ways that will guarantee their happiness in the future. What could you do today to ensure that we can harness and nurture that potential?

Inner Sense No. 24 | June 2011

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Thanks for sharing!