Childhood Hero Day is June 13 and Megan at Imaginif suggested bloggers might like to post an article (or story) ahead of time… to bring attention to the day… and awareness to the fact that kids everywhere need… now more than ever… heroes in their lives!
I have written both… an article… and a story (dredged from the depths of the family archive! laughs) which I shall post next time. But for now… the article (and of course… the cartoon!)
Cartoon Pen & Watercolour Copyright 2008 Jean Burman
A recent report “Children’s Fears, Hopes and Heroes – Modern Childhood in Australia” surveyed 600 10 – 14 year olds… and revealed that kids today believe they have much to worry about!
It turns out that:
52% of children are scared that there will not be enough water in the future
44% of children are worried about the future impacts of climate change
43% of children are worried about pollution in the air and water
A third of children are anxious about terrorism.
And a staggering one in four believe that the world will end before they have the chance to grow up!
Add to this concerns of… bullying… obesity… thinness… self image… peer pressure… and acceptance… along with the day to day “stuff” of growing up in the fast pace of modern life (sometimes in environments burdened by excessive financial and emotional hardship)… and there you have it… one gargantuan block of issues to worry about!
What can we adults be thinking? (And by adults I mean all of us… not just parents but also the greater community)
Why do we burden them so?
Childhood just has to be a time when children can simply “be children”!
If not then… then when?
They need us now more than ever to buffer their experiences… to listen to them… (and really hear)… to love them… to shelter and protect them… and to be there to tell them that everything’s going to be okay!
And it will be okay.
Despite the doomsday bleatings of the press… and despite the worrying trends of a world which seems at times to be spinning dangerously out of control… and despite the many and varied modern day issues (some of them serious) that children face today… they WILL be okay.
Just as long as we are there for them… 100%… and they know it…no matter what!
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