Losing sight of what matters most

Mothers really were not built to raise babies not only by themselves, but with only a partner. For millions of years, a woman had much more than just her husband to help rear her young… This whole idea of ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is exactly how we’re supposed to live.

~ Helen Fisher

Although I have come to enjoy the luxuries of modern life, I find myself reminiscing about my childhood.

I do not wish to glorify the past. But I grew up in a small town on an island, where we lived to eat and to provide safety, shelter, and clothing for our families and communities. We didn't have much, but people seemed to have the right priorities. We loved children and prioritized their needs over all else.

As we look after our own granddaughters this summer, I feel sad that, to make ends meet, parents have to outsource childcare year-round, often to poorly qualified caregivers.

Parents have lost the village it takes to raise a child and increasingly feel isolated and unsupported. And children feel unloved.