Over the weekend I spent quite a bit of time outside in the park across the street from my house with my daughter, Ava. The weather was perfect, and she was excited to be trying out her new tricycle — a gift from her Grandmother, who was visiting for Mother's Day.
As we played in the park I found myself stopping every few feet to pick up trash: broken glass, bottle tops, burger wrappers, plastic bottles, cigarette butts and more. Ava noticed what I was doing, and she spontaneously started to help. So we spent a few minutes together just picking up trash and throwing it away. I had to keep her from touching the broken glass, but she caught on pretty quickly for a two and a half year old!
I thought to myself how horrible it was that my daughter was the ONLY other person in a park full of people who stopped to help me pick up garbage — lots of other people clearly saw what we were doing and simply went about their business. (Okay, there was one other kid in the park, about 4 years old, who came over and handed me a piece of newspaper instead of throwing it away himself. He gets a pass.)
But what a magnificent opportunity to set a positive example and teach Ava an important life lesson about making a difference!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment