So. I want my kids to have a wider sense of the world than their privileged circumstances.......

[toomanysleighs]

I'm thinking about this all the time, but obviously it becomes a bit more acute during consumermass - we do oxfam unwrapped and all that, - but their lives seem so INSULAR. I've subscribed them to first news but they seem very disinterested in the world around them. I don't want to be preachy or naggy becuase I know this can have the opposite of the desired effect. Should I just go on doing the stuff I do and hope that it osmotically kind of drips down? I'm quite active politically but I have kept them out of it as they have their own stuff to do and I don't want them to get bored...but I think a sense of the world is really important. I hate worthiness though. They are 6 and 8. they won't even watch blue peter - which at least would teach them about turtles or whatever. What do others do?

ds2 and ds3 come into ds1's school (SLD/PMLD). I think it provides perspective, although tbh they don't really seem to notice. We also sponsor a child through- agh can't rememeber the name- but the non-Christian one.

yurt if you can remember the non-christian one for sponsering a child I would be really interested.

If I sponser a child, I don't want to feel they have to follow a particular religion (or even any!) to get an education.

join scouts.
take them on holdays where they see how the other half lives.
take them to visit friends and relatives not as well off, but who are good friends.

they are only small

let them be children

carefree and insular life sounds ideal

they'll have enough time when they're adults for all the worthy stuff

I don't tell mine much about the world tbh. I don't think they should concern themselves with it much, I think they should be children for as long as possible.

That having been said I do tell them (10 and 4) that some childen aren't as lucky as them, the older one knows there are bad people in the world (but doesn't for eg know what a paedophile is, I don't think he should know. Although he knows his body is private).

I think wait, it'll get to them soon enough.

At 6 adn 8 I do think it's fair enough that they're not interested in current affairs btw, I think they're still working out what various words mean, who they are, what happens to your poo, all sorts. I think actually The World is quite a horrible dysfunctional place and later is better for children to learn this.

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Living as we do in Berlin, and using a lot of public transport, I think dses will with time not fail to notice that there are circumstances less privileged than their own

We are sending ds1 to what the Germans call an integration kindergarten, which means there are children with SN alongside children without. Partly to help provide, as yurt says, a sense of perspective, partly to avoid the kind of upbringing I had where it was so very rare to encounter people with SN and if they did a lot of my peers rejected and ridiculed them .

dh is currently initiating a project in which 'privileged' students get involved with pupils at 'difficult' schools and run projects with them. I do church stuff now and again and am planning to vlunteer when I have more time. I suppose as dses grow up and see us doing this sort of thing it will become part of their lives and 'normal' for them.

They are only little. Let them have their nice world for a bit longer!!

I think that it would be better to focus on giving them the best that you can, and making all the really good childhood memories you can, and then, when they are older, they can make that discovery for themselves and think back to how lucky they have been.

I think they are too young to really take in the message you are wanting to send - and then it won't have the impact when they ARE old enough, because they'll have seen it all before and be used to it, so won't be shocked or really think. iyswim.

Gah, unclear. 'Get involved with' in the sense of going into school and working with them on projects.

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It is fab. I've started seeing more of the downsides since having children and do sometimes long for somewhere smaller, but we are living in a nice part and there is lots of stuff to do and to show the children.

i also have the same concern as you toomany

but having read this thread, i tend to agree that it would be nice for your kids to live as long as possible in a 'safe' world. i think theres the chance that overloading kids with the huge burdens of, say climate change or widespread starvation... when theres nothing they can do about it... i remember being v scared of nuclear war. we went on lots of marches and stuff as kids. i dont know that that did any good. dont know quite what the point of that was really.

having said that... i dunno. fine balance. i also sponsor overseas children, and as mine grow id limke them to develop a relationship of sorts with them - if that seems appropriate to the sponsored children, that is.

and theres always national geographic for kids which you could subscribe to in their name - thyell like getting 'post'.

At the moment I am happy for the dc to live in their own little secure world. Having said that, ds has been in Beavers, now in Cubs and is aware of less fortunates, and dd will start Rainbows soon so she too will gain this awareness. In addition their school is very involved with various charities and sponsorships, which helps to make the children aware of their 'riches' both in materialistic and emotional terms.

Hi- It's Plan that we sponsor through- set up by an ex socail worker.

I think the advantage of introducing to disadvantage etc early is that it isn't processed as being anything different. DS2 and ds3 have disability in their face 24/7 from ds1 (and physical disabilities from school). DS2 (aged 5) had a great friend at school who is older and has AS - he's quite obviously different - lots of tic etc - but ds2 doesn;t even appear to notice (I haven't said anything as I don't know how much the boy knows). I think that being in proximity to ds1 has just made that sort of thing totally normal and so he doesn't even notice it.

Some of the people who work with our family have volunteered with disabled kids from a young age. I can ask them how they got involved and when if you want.

had?has I mean

take them to Romania - I can point out a few places that will make their hair stand on end

Plan, Everychild ans SOS childrens villages all do child sponsorship minus the religious angle.

plan and everychild sponsor children within their families and the wider community. SOS run childrens 'villages' for orphans.

did you take yours to romania beetroot?

I should have mentioned we live in a kind of middle class ghetto - we are quite plebby for round here -everyone braying about 2nd homes etc - and this is increasing my sense of frustration that they are not aware of the real world.

They watch Newsround on CBBC, and we talk about the stories. At least a few stories each week showing what a mess the rest of the world is in.

Local state primary school. Huge mix of children.

You are absolutely right to think that it is a crucial part of upbringing to learn that most of the world lives in very different circumstances to one's own.

However, I think one needs to take it gently when explaining this to children. If like us you go on holiday to "real" places, not to big hotels or tourist villages, it is quite easy to show your children how children in other countries live - and how their lives might be poorer in some ways, but richer in others, than their own.

You can also look closer to home. In our building there is a "gardienne" who lives in a tiny dark one room flat on the ground floor. Her little boy is the same age as my daughter. All our children know that Flavio the gardienne's son has a tough time and that their lives are incomparably more comfortable. But Flavio and his mother are nice and kind and we chat to them and other children in the building go to the same school as he does. It is not because you are poor that you do not have opportunities in life, in Western countries.

To young yet to have their illusion of this wonderful world destroyed by real life - wait till they start realising themselves and then educate them.

I do so want my children to appreciate that life isn't all take, take, take. That Christmas is very different for a lot of other people. That, just because we have a close and generous family, Christmas isn't just about receiving gifts.

So, next year I want to spend the money we would usually use for presents on going on a residential volunteering course over the Christmas period. The sort where accommodation and food is provided but our time is spent doing "worthy" and useful stuff. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions??

How old are your children feckle?