Welcome to the Minding Our Children Community
I'm so glad you're here.
Following many years in education, followed by many years in mental health, I have created this place, a sacred space, to share my thinking and to use my voice, and to hear yours. This sharing, with a focus on children, can make a difference in their lives, moving from illness to wellness. Children are vulnerable, and for too many there is an absence of healthy adults, paying attention. Too many vulnerable children are being influenced only by other children, or by social media, or by videos and video games, or by others disguised as healthy adults. And for too many households, for too many neighborhoods, for too many schools, no one is truly minding the children. I have no intention to assign blame, only to raise awareness and to make “minding our children” an urgent responsibility.
MINDING OUR CHILDREN is a place for sharing, for understanding, and for taking action to build healthy environments for children. For a long time before world-wide climate change got our attention, the climate surrounding many of our children resulted in compromising their physical and their emotional well being. And all along, for some, no one was minding the children.
So, can one person’s thinking and one person’s voice make a difference? I am convinced that is true. We are going to promote that idea and create some urgency around it. That thinking and that voice can be mine…or it can be yours. Together let’s begin to Mind Our Children.
Purpose of the Work: From in utero, our babies (regardless of their ages now) are vulnerable to the environments created by their parents or adult care givers. Not only do infants, toddlers, young children, teenagers and young adult children require nurture, they also require safety. These emerging humans need food/shelter, physical/emotional safety, healthy attachments to healthy adults and a sense of belonging. These vulnerable human children need the adults in their lives to show up and offer sanctuary, to protect them while they explore and grow, and to buffer them from the toxic stressors found all around us in life.
Minding Our Children provides a forum for sharing ideas that might help overwhelmed or perhaps simply unaware parents to create healthy environments for their children. Minding the Children is also a forum for other adults (family caregivers, educators, coaches, troop leaders, youth leaders) to gain a deeper understanding of how to contribute to raising healthy children.
Minding Our Children is not simply another internet location. It is, it can be, a place to recognize without judgment that your children may be at risk. Regardless of your role in their lives, make a commitment to Mind Our Children. If they could, all of our children would encourage you to follow along and to make the changes in their lives they need to be healthy.
Stay connected with me on LinkedIn. Until I spend more time building the community and having a place to "join", I hope you'll stay connected in the work and send me a note if you're feeling called to a conversation.
