I’m a parent, so I know. There is a deep-seated desire in each of us to protect our kids from all the scary things that await them out in the world.

We Want to Protect our Children

We want to protect them from bullies and mean girls. We want to protect them from failing exams and losing soccer games. And then there are the bigger things.

I will never forget the feeling I had the morning of September 11, 2001, knowing my children were innocently at work in their elementary school classrooms while the World Trade Center towers were crashing down. My thoughts: What would their teachers say to them? What would I say to them? How could we protect them?

Today’s parents and children face the same kind of harrowing moments. Bomb explosions, shootings. Emotionally bruising taunts based on race, religion, sexuality. How do we protect our children?

The Question is How?

To start, we must face the fact that children are aware of what’s going on around them. We cannot protect them by acting as though it doesn’t exist. Instead we must empower them, make them feel that they can do something about it.

Empower Them to Act

Last week I went to the Women’s March in NY. There were groups of young adults. There were oldies like me. And there were families, parents with children sitting high on their shoulders. Some wore pink knit caps. Some held up signs. I later saw a photo of a very young boy, too young to write, who had scrawled squiggly lines across his own homemade sign. These children were actively engaged. Feeling that they could make a difference.

There are so many ways for kids to take action. Sign a petition. Volunteer at a local food pantry or other social justice group. Research and present a report on an issue that is challenging them. Our job as parents? Help them face the world head on. Draw them into a conversation exploring what they can do to shape answers.

When we arm our kids with the tools to combat their problems – large and small – we make them feel they are not helpless. We protect them.

Share your stories of empowering children!

This weekend, a deep freeze has descended upon Chicago and much of the rest of the country. If you’re like me, you enjoy the warmth of the fireplace and hot chocolate or tea and a soft wool blanket wrapped around your legs. But if you’re like me, you also need to get out. After hours sitting still in the warmth of the indoors, getting outside is invigorating. The crisp dry cold air as it hits your lungs, a little tingle in the nostrils – it gives me a rush of energy, brings back the old vim and vigor.

A Perfect Winter Outing

Yesterday‘s outing was a brisk walk to the local bookstore. In my pocket, I carried the Christmas gift card bestowed upon me by my college-aged nephew. Here’s the great thing about this gift – it is really two gifts in one: the gift of reading, to be sure; but also the gift of book browsing, which is its own joyful adventure.

The Joy of Just Looking

When my children were young, we had a regular weekly outing to the bookstore. As we walked through the door to the shop, a feast of lively book covers invited us in. Drawing closer, we scanned the book titles, then opened the book jackets, tantalized by summaries of stories to be unspooled on the pages that followed. There were stories of princesses and wizards, school and home, times of adventure and others of quiet.

As a grownup, I still feel that same rush of book-browsing pleasure. Histories and chick-lit, page-turning mysteries and laugh-out-loud comedies. On my outing yesterday, I looked at a novel take on the underground railroad, a story of life as seen by a spunky millennial, and Bruce Springsteen’s look back at how he got to be him. I ended up choosing a couple of nonfiction looks at the world we live in, one a classic, the other contemporary.

Tomorrow, the reading will begin. But yesterday, the browsing was the bomb-diggity.

Share your favorite book titles!