My blog identity was chosen because I have long had a dream to create a home where kids, in particular, feel welcome. So many children today have little parent time. They go home to empty houses and are comforted by the TV or iPod when they are sick or down. I think that is so sad. Kids need to talk, to feel wanted and needed, to know there is access to help if they need it. That said, some of the neighbor kids have been calling me "Mom." It means the world to me. I want them to be truly at home here and to find a place where they are valued. I do come to love them, to worry about them, and to hope for them.
Yesterday, one of them really let us down. He brought words and ideas into the minds of our children that I didn't want there. I cried. I just really grieved - still am. What to do? He needs direction as much as any child does, and I like him. He's a good natured, smart kid with enough tough stuff to be respectable. I don't want to shun him, but I do not want to risk our children either. John is going to talk to him. He will explain what the boundaries around our children are and that the consequences of violating them will be expulsion from our family circle, in which we've allowed him to walk.
If you know me very well, you know I don't like having neighbors. I fall in love with their kids and then have to figure out how to manage all the baggage that comes with loving them. It's much simpler to just never have or know neighbors. But it violates one of my life's goals to look the other way when there are children who need a bit of mothering.
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Being concerned about others is so you ever since you were small. We faced the same dilemma from time to time as you were growing up. We came down on the side that our children had priority over helping others' children, but it was hard to know what to do. God will help you discern His will.
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