It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

"Our most fundamental responsibility as citizens is to love not only our own children, but other people's as well--including children we will never meet, who grow up in situations we'd prefer to ignore."


Wow what a great quote! As soon as I read it I thought of the kids at Horses Help. The kids that we work with are not related to me and they are growing up in tough situations that people don't like to think about.

I totally connected with this quote because my parents have always said it takes a village to raise a child. Regardless of whether or not a child (or person for that matter) is related to me, I feel like I should treat them as I would like to be treated and watch out for them. My mom was always the parent who sat outside in our driveway when I played with the kids from our neighborhood because she felt like it was her job to watch out for all of us, not just me.

Anyway...back to the question. I asked a few people how they felt about Leob's quote and I was surprised by their responses.

• The guy I asked said, "well I wouldn't take a child in and just treat them as my own, but I would be neighborly." From this response I felt like part of him wanted to do the right thing and help a kid out but at the same time he wasn't completely comfortable with treating them as a member of his family. Maybe because as a child we would let my friends sleep over or have dinner with us because they lived in a single parent home and we didn't want them to be at home by themselves, but I'm just used to treating people like a member of the family. I'm not saying you should just open up your home to a stranger and right away feel comfortable treating them as a member of the family, but in my house after a few times of someone being over they were like family. I had friends and neighbors who either both their parents worked or they lived with only one of their parents and we would have them over after school so they didn't have to walk home by themselves and be home alone all afternoon.

• The girl I asked said she tries to treat everyone well and knows that even doing little things for people and kids makes a difference. She also agreed though, that it would be hard to treat people like a family member if they are not one. Her response got me thinking, if I was to talk to more people would more women agree with this quote compared to men? I think that women have a motherly instinct and when they see a child, who ever they belong to, they just assume a motherly role. Now please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there aren't guys out there who will agree with this quote and feel responsible for other children too (I know there are a lot of great guys out there :D) it's just that I think women might be more open to the "it takes a village" theory.

I was also considering whether ones age would affect how they felt about this quote. Maybe more mature (nice way of saying older) people might agree with this quote more than people our age. In some ways I believe our society has become more for ourselves and think only about our family. In my opinion we need to return to the days where we looked out for all the kids in our community and realized that just because they aren't "ours" doesn't mean we shouldn't look out and love them too.