The New Domesticity: 30 Days of Tending
I popped my head into the church nursery one Sunday to make sure that all was well. The room was well staffed, the toddlers were happy, and bubbles floated overhead causing giggles and jumps to erupt from the little ones. And then I noticed the 2-year-old tucked quietly behind a play structure. One of our staff members noticed her too. Adroitly assessing the situation, the staff member gently approached the child, leaned over with an engaging grin, and shared a doll with the little girl. The child warmed to the offering and was soon bouncing and giggling with the others. Oh, and this staff member? He’s a 13-year-old young man.
Smiling over the timing of catching such a moment, I wondered if other teen boys would have felt comfortable in a similar setting. Admittedly, I really wouldn’t have given the interaction a second thought if it had been one of our older, motherly staff members in the same situation. But a young man? This was good. This was what our children needed to see: that they can be trained to see a basic need and that they can tend to it.
To read more, pick up a copy of the September 2016 issue at any of these locations, or view the digital archive copy here.
