France, we are praying for you... you are loved and supported.
Take what I say with the following disclaimer: 1) I have been at rock-bottom as a mother In the past, and been judged in my capabilities by those who love me most. as a result I have ZERO judgement for other parents and their choices/limits in parenting. 2)I AM processing things from my own unique conservative up-bringing and I am growing as a human being through all of this... I'm not perfect, but I am well-intentioned.
OKAY! NOW THAT THAT'S DONE, lets begin....
We don't celebrate Halloween... I didn't and I did as a child. My parents adapted their views on this holiday as we matured. My husband's family has nothing to do with Halloween, and as I submit to my husband's views in this way even when I don't understand/agree all the time. (He's a smart man who loves our kids and I, and whom I respect greatly, so this isn't a problem for me.) This year however, as I was also trying to prepare for Rememberance day, I realized how very little there is out there for toddlers on this holiday.
So I asked online in some of my parenting groups... nothing... not only did most not celebrate this holiday, but they had zero ideas/conviction to teach their children about this. I was partially mad, and mostly motivated... So I did some research and found a do-able poppy craft for a two year old. I printed out a few cartoon pictures of soldiers, bought my son a soldier hat from the dollar store, and taught him that soldiers say "YES SIR!" and that they keep us safe from owies. When the week of rememberance day rolled around, then we began our poppy craft. I explained to him that we were going to go see some soliers and say thank you to them for keeping us safe. I told him how much soldiers like poppies. I told him it was their FAVORITE FLOWER and so we will make them some poppies, and put a fancy "red quarter" on them. On remembrance day, we went to our Legislative building where they do a "21 Gun salute" with blanks in three cannons. He wore big ear covers for that part, and saw soldiers saying "yes sir" and wearing their dress uniforms. Afterward, we hunted down current and past soldiers by looking at their clothes and looking for medals on their jackets. Then, attached to a poem my husband and I worked on, my son said "Thank you soldier" and gave them poppies. We made 8 altogether. All of this took NO MORE effort than it would take the average parent to teach, prepare and implement their child's Halloween experience.
It's offensive to me that people don't see their freedom worthy of being remembered, but they will go to great lengths to teach their children what ghosts, goblins and witches are for Halloween. They are willing to have their children knock on doors for candy that will rot their teeth, minds and bodies, but they aren't willing to teach their children about real death, real sacrifice and real freedom worthy of a celebration... It's all backwards...
Christmas... My husband's family teaches that Santa isn't real, and presents are from your parents and that Christmas is about Christ. (Santa is still fun, just not real)... I thought about this in relation to rememberance day too, and now I am just angry about it all... people... GOOD PEOPLE are teaching their children about fictional characters like Santa Clause...TEACHING!! TAKING TIME, TO SIT DOWN WITH THEIR TWO YEAR OLDS AND LIE TO THEM TO CONVINCE THEM OF THE EXISTANCE OF THIS SANTA CLAUSE...but they arent willing to teach them about the THOUSANDS who fought and died for their freedom. a REAL GIFT! A REAL SACRIFICE. I dont care if you are christian, athiest, bhuddhist, muslim or jewish.... how dare you?!? lie to your children for fun, and then hide the truth from them... it's shameful.
Our freedom is not permanant. There are people in our world who keep Hitler and his values alive, and as long as those people exist, we need to be active in teaching our children how to FIGHT for freedom, not just how to live in it.
What do we teach our children about bullying? We teach them that it is wrong, but do we teach them how to fight back? Do we teach them self-defense, how to stand up for others and that choosing to do nothing, is indeed choosing to ALLOW the bullying at school? Why aren't these values taught? All we teach is "don't be the bad guy" and "mind your own business". Are we creating a generation of people who will NOT step in to save a life? There have already been experiments where a loud recording of (what sounds like) a woman being abused is played in apartment blocks... no one calls the cops, or knocks on the door...nothing... they play a (same volume) recording of someone practicing drums, and people complain and knock on the door for them to be quiet... wow.. just wow... We are ALREADY a generation of people who don't stand up. We aren't "strong and free" as our anthem says if we don't choose to stand strong. Sometimes pacifism is NOT THE ANSWER. Sometimes you need to go out and STOP the evil.
I simply dont understand why we dont teach our children about Rememberance day...we leave that up to the school system. My son is TWO years old... He's old enough to believe in santa clause, old enough to be obsessed with Thomas the train, Old enough to understand delayed gratification... He's old enough to (at the very least) learn about what a soldier is, and does. He may not understand death, but he can understand that there are people who work hard to keep us safe, and that they get "owies" so that we dont have to...
Let me give some background to my passionate views... I grew up in a conservative Mennonite home. My paternal grandma would have worn a head covering for much of her life (though not in the time I knew her). She never owned a deck of cards or music with a drum beat, and I don't know if she even owned a pair of "slacks" (pants). My maternal grandma was an immigrant (I THINK during the war) to canada. She was a little less conservative and a little more upper-class but still a conservative Mennonite. I was told that my grandfathers, both pacifist did not fight in World War II, but did help in medical ways or mining efforts here at home with the war.
Growing up, I wasn't allowed to go to school dances or date. I attended church 2-3 days a week and was proudly taught my families values of pacifism. Their views and values have changed drastically over the years. They celebrate what our soldiers do for us now, and have helped our local legion with their services on several occasions, and attend a ceremony regularly. I am very proud of them and how they have been able to hang on to the values of their heritage while growing to appreciate the truth of their freedom.
My husband's family is also Mennonite in heritage, however, my father-in-law almost enlisted in the army, my sister-in-law was in the Navy reserves and her husband is currently in the Canadian Navy out in Halifax. My husband too, likely would have enlisted had I not come along and "wooed him" into a life of matrimony :P. It's a very different perspective on pacifism that I married into. Still extremely peaceful people, but they can appreciate where the bible says "a time for war and a time for peace"...
I went to Steinbach Bible College for two years after highschool and they teach Mennonite values similar to those I was taught as a child. However in my Mennonite History class when I learned about how we all came to live in this "home and native land", I learned that many of us Mennonites fled to Canada during the wars due to our pacifist values and our strong convictions to NOT fight in the wars... our families were being persecuted for these values. Threatened and killed for them, so they fled to various countries and eventually Canada. Here in Canada, they were welcomed, and asked to farm the lands while others went off to war. In this way, they were welcomed to be free. What this really means is that someone else, another Canadian soldier, fought and died so that my grandparents wouldn't have to fight...wow... what a perfect representation of what Christ did on the cross for us. We worship and praise Christ for what He did, but we shame the soldier? this makes no sense. We ought to (at the very least) be thankful to the soldiers who did this (and CONTINUE to do this in present times) for our freedom. Because someone else fought and died, I have the freedom to rant and rave in this blog post and you have the freedom to completely disagree with me.
My son's photo and the poem I wrote made it onto the CTV News, and we were so proud of him, and (hey, no filters right?) ourselves for taking time to teach him. We were so honored that we had touched a Seargent's heart in such a way. But the sad reality is, why is this unique? why are we the ones starting this, and honestly there's nothing to be proud of here. It's the vets and soldiers who ought to be proud of what they've done. All we did was type and paint... for a few hours... really, that's it. All we did was teach our son the very utter basics of what this holiday is all about. We taught him things that all parents should be teaching their children. I sincerely hope, that if nothing else, our little "5 seconds of fame" brought conviction to the hearts of some parents who chose to do nothing this year, and brought inspiration to those who have been struggling (like i have) to find an idea worth doing.
I know we aren't alone. Many soldiers we saw, already had a hand-made card in their hands, so I am overjoyed to say we didn't invent this idea, and we aren't the only family teaching their children! I am so happy about this! I hope, as time goes on and I continue to shape my values as a canadian mother, that I will be able to raise my two boys to become strong men who will be proud to serve their God and their country in whatever capacity they have been destined for.
