It Takes a Village*

One of the kids who takes the bus with my children has no siblings and both his parents work, so he comes over to our house quite a bit. He’s basically a good kid but we have to monitor and guide him as if he was our own, which can be a hassle at the end of a long day. As my wife and I talked about why we take him we realized that we don’t do it to help out his parents but to help him become a healthy, productive member of our community. At my dad’s funeral a number of young men came up and talked about how he was a second father to them. Our house often had kids from the neighborhood hanging out at the kitchen table talking to my mom or dad. Children need communities to raise them just as much as they need families.