Teaching Littles to Respect the Police

It's a scary world out there. After you become a parent, the world actually gets even scarier.

You become acutely aware of how vulnerable you are: always holding a baby or carrier, holding hands to get through parking lots, bent over in the backseat buckling buckles or finding sippy cups, lugging a diaper bag with your one free hand, etc.

You become acutely aware of the crushing responsibility to keep your children safe from those who may do them harm.

I have things worth protecting in my life. I have a family, a home, a business, and personal property that my husband and I have worked hard for and made sacrifices to acquire. While the responsibility to protect those things falls squarely upon my (and my husband's) shoulders, the police do a great deal to help maintain that security.

I want my children to know that the police have a shitty job. Don't believe me? Here's how one cop explains the perpetual catch-22 that they find themselves in. They sacrifice and their families sacrifice. Sure, everyone has been pulled over by "that cop" who came off like a complete jackass. But I'm not naive enough to act like I've never had a day where I came off like a complete jackass.

The police do a job that is desperately needed and frighteningly under-appreciated. My job as a parent is to teach my children that police officers, like fire fighters and members of the military, deserve their utmost respect. This respect will serve them well in any future encounters with the police because, like in many aspects of life, the attitude that you portray to others tends to be the attitude that you get back.

This week, Niamh and I will talk about the police and the job they do for us and our community. We will go out and pick up some small gift cards to Starbucks and pass them out to the officers we see in the mornings at Chick-Fil-A. We are also going to make some arts and crafts that have to do with police officers to start a conversation about who they are and what they do for us. Check out this printable or this idea for police car crafts. Pinterest has plenty of craft ideas to get your little ones thinking and talking about the police. Many police precincts will even offer a tour for a group of littles. Be creative and begin laying that foundation of respect.

A Big Thank You

Nothing makes you appreciate your own parents like becoming a parent yourself.

If you haven't thanked your parents recently, take this opportunity to give them a call and tell them that you appreciate their hard work and sacrifices.

To my own parents:

Thank you for raising me. Thank you for all the headaches, sleepless nights, frustration and tears that came along with that task.

Thank you for letting me play outside and ride my bike with the neighbor kids in the street even though you knew I could get hurt. 

Thank you for cleaning my skinned knee when I decided that riding roller skates down the neighbor's steep driveway was a good idea.

Thank you for giving me space but always being there when I was a teenager, going through teenage things, and getting my heart broken.

Thank you for helping me pack my Care Bears suitcase when I threatened to run away. And for waving goodbye to me as I walked down the street.

Thank you for always making sure that my eduction came first and any teenage drama took a backseat.

Thank you for teaching me to love myself so that the bullying and teasing of adolescence wasn't a huge distraction.

Thank you for dancing with me in the basement to the songs on the jukebox. And thank you for encouraging me to dance by myself...so that you could watch through the basement windows with the neighbors while you drank wine and laughed.

Thank you for teaching me how to fold fitted sheets while watching Knots Landing.

Thank you for all the dental work.

Thank you for making sacrifices to send me to school, whether it was when I was two or twenty.

Thank you for still loving me even when I said I hated you.

Thank you for all the times you cleaned up poop...or puke...or both.

Thank you for teaching me algebra. And how to adjust the timing on a Chevy 350. And how to love my spouse and kids.

Thank you for saving my macaroni necklaces for four moves and thousands of miles.

Thanks for telling me to "wrap it up" when I was on the phone too late as a teenager.

Thank you for teaching me the value of a dollar and how to appreciate the things I was given. Thanks for all those nights we spent working on my first car: rebuilding a fuse box and jumping fuses to make headlights work, learning how to drive a stick, etc.

Thank you for being as enthusiastic about being grandparents as you were about being parents.

Thanks for pulling me out of a school for a "funeral" so we could spend the day together.

Thanks for letting me learn my own lessons even though it would've been easier if you would've just told me.

Thanks for always supporting me.

Thank you for teaching me who in this world deserves my upmost respect and admiration.

Thank you for making me go to church even when I pretended to be sick.

Thank you for almost always being a lot of fun.

Thank you for teaching me lessons about life even those times when it was the hardest; for sticking to your guns even when I pushed every button and boundary there was and all you wanted to do was give up and drink a glass of wine. Thank you for being great parents.