Social Security...............
In the midst of a really hectic time in her life Dawn took the time to teach me how to do a link. Thanks Dee - hope everything turns out OK, with D's dad.
I was cycling around my neighbourhood yesterday, I was reading Jax's blog about how she had just got electric fences put around her house.
I am often amazed at how naive my neighbours are as they play in the streets, ride their bikes without a care. Except for a short period after 9/11 they have no idea what it is like to live in a state of constant awareness. Sure there is crime and the news is filled with stories but the stuff that makes it into the headlines here is so commonplace in South Africa that it does not even get a mention. My kids have no idea how fortunate they are to live in a place where they can ride their bikes and have their only concern being looking out for cars or walking to the park with the babysitter after school and when they are older being able to walk around the neighbourhood in little packs of giggling girls.
Spring is here, people's driveways are filled with bands of kids playing basketball, we drive slowly around the neighbourhood as you never know when one may come across a game of roller hockey in the streets. I know for me that is the reason I decided not to go back to SA. Its funny when Josh and I got married he knew without a shadow of a doubt that one day we would be living back in SA. When we were talking about doing it because I just could not take the homesickness anymore, I pined for my parents, the yearning was so strong to be my daddy's little girl, to be safe from the big pond I had landed in, this little fish was being dragged by the stream and it scared the crap out of me. My mom who felt like a part of her was missing with me here was the one who held strong, when as a mom she wanted me back home so badly, No she said you have gone through too much to be where you are and you will not bring my grandchildren up here. As everyone knows they gave up so much to move around the corner from me and I am so grateful to them because without them I would not have the kids that I have today. My mom created a safe haven for my kids where they could just be kids, where fun was the objective while I was the trapeze artist balancing everything else, barely hanging on, not even looking down to see if I was able to put one foot in front of the other, tumbling down, dusting off and getting right back on. You see for all its security for all the USA has to offer my kids and there is so much, they won't lnow some of the most important lessons that one gets to learn, its ok to be a kid and act like a kid. Kids here are 8 going on 18. They lead scheduled lives where they socialize through activities. The put in 12 - 14 hour days.
I had an instance yesterday where I was doing my Hebrew School carpool, one of the kids from the older classes needed a ride, he happens to live on my block (we all know how fabulously I get on with my block) and he refused to come with me because his mother had not said that he could. Kids are drilled with stories of strangers and the danger. Here is a kid who while he does not know me, catches the bus with my daughters everyday and did not feel safe enough to let me drive him home. His mom called later to apologize and the saddest part is her and I both knew that the lessons she had taught him would one day save him. You see my kids won't know that people for the most part can be trusted but need to be shied away from and kept at arms length or further if you can. We may not put up fences around our houses but we teach our kids to put them around themselves. I am not sure what is worse.
I was cycling around my neighbourhood yesterday, I was reading Jax's blog about how she had just got electric fences put around her house.
I am often amazed at how naive my neighbours are as they play in the streets, ride their bikes without a care. Except for a short period after 9/11 they have no idea what it is like to live in a state of constant awareness. Sure there is crime and the news is filled with stories but the stuff that makes it into the headlines here is so commonplace in South Africa that it does not even get a mention. My kids have no idea how fortunate they are to live in a place where they can ride their bikes and have their only concern being looking out for cars or walking to the park with the babysitter after school and when they are older being able to walk around the neighbourhood in little packs of giggling girls.
Spring is here, people's driveways are filled with bands of kids playing basketball, we drive slowly around the neighbourhood as you never know when one may come across a game of roller hockey in the streets. I know for me that is the reason I decided not to go back to SA. Its funny when Josh and I got married he knew without a shadow of a doubt that one day we would be living back in SA. When we were talking about doing it because I just could not take the homesickness anymore, I pined for my parents, the yearning was so strong to be my daddy's little girl, to be safe from the big pond I had landed in, this little fish was being dragged by the stream and it scared the crap out of me. My mom who felt like a part of her was missing with me here was the one who held strong, when as a mom she wanted me back home so badly, No she said you have gone through too much to be where you are and you will not bring my grandchildren up here. As everyone knows they gave up so much to move around the corner from me and I am so grateful to them because without them I would not have the kids that I have today. My mom created a safe haven for my kids where they could just be kids, where fun was the objective while I was the trapeze artist balancing everything else, barely hanging on, not even looking down to see if I was able to put one foot in front of the other, tumbling down, dusting off and getting right back on. You see for all its security for all the USA has to offer my kids and there is so much, they won't lnow some of the most important lessons that one gets to learn, its ok to be a kid and act like a kid. Kids here are 8 going on 18. They lead scheduled lives where they socialize through activities. The put in 12 - 14 hour days.
I had an instance yesterday where I was doing my Hebrew School carpool, one of the kids from the older classes needed a ride, he happens to live on my block (we all know how fabulously I get on with my block) and he refused to come with me because his mother had not said that he could. Kids are drilled with stories of strangers and the danger. Here is a kid who while he does not know me, catches the bus with my daughters everyday and did not feel safe enough to let me drive him home. His mom called later to apologize and the saddest part is her and I both knew that the lessons she had taught him would one day save him. You see my kids won't know that people for the most part can be trusted but need to be shied away from and kept at arms length or further if you can. We may not put up fences around our houses but we teach our kids to put them around themselves. I am not sure what is worse.
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