One of the greatest gifts to your children is to teach them to show love and respect to the elderly. One of the greatest ways to honor the aged is to bring children to love on them. Here is a picture of my niece Cede visiting my grandmother in the nursing home last weekend.
Now, Cede does not know Gram. She has only met her a few times (and in a 4-year-old's life, that is not many). But Cede has spent plenty of time in the nursing home, visiting the elderly, and has been shown how to give her affection freely.
My mother used to regularly take us to visit her aunts and uncles (or maybe they were her GREAT-aunts) in the nursing home when we were really little. Many children develop a fear of these people or places because they just don't have the opportunities to develop familiarity with the residents living there.
Here's a Mother's day idea: take your child to visit a nursing home this week! If you don't have any relatives you can visit, then go visit strangers. I promise, the residents won't be sorry to see some child-like faces!
So true Gretel! It is an awesome thing for her to be involved in our nursing home ministry... They love her! She is so loving towards them, and Emily has been bringing her faithfully...love them both for doing that, and thankful that Cede for unselfishly loving on the elderly.
ReplyDeleteSo true Gretel! It is an awesome thing for her to be involved in our nursing home ministry... They love her! She is so loving towards them, and Emily has been bringing her faithfully...love them both for doing that, and thankful that Cede for unselfishly loving on the elderly.
ReplyDeleteVery True. My cousin has a reading time for toddlers at the nursing home in her town. The elderly AND the toddlers all sit in the room for story time and snack. I love her idea and would love to be organized enough to do that sometime.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize your mother had passed away until you left the comment on my blog. I lost my dad and grandpa at 11 and my other grandpa at 7 so the whole Father's Day often goes right by without me thinking about it. Of course now that I have a child we try to do things for her daddy.
Book storage prob.
Well, I put no more than 15 bks on a shelf or basket and in the kitchen maybe 2 and by the rocker 2. However, when she was younger I do remember it was hard to keep things neat. We rotated toys in 4 bags too so that helped with the mess.
It seems to have gotten easier as she's gotten older. She's 2 now.