Teaching Awareness

Aly and I wearing matching dresses and masks for a masquerade-themed Christmas party last year.

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Aly likes everything terno with mommy, but motherhood is should be more than wearing matching bags, shoes and dresses.  It's more than helping her with homework, teaching her how to draw, how to take care of her things, teaching table manners...motherhood is so much more that that.  I also want to teach Aly about awareness.

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The other night, we were watching Idol Gives Back on tv and it opened her to concepts like malaria, world hunger and other stuff.  I try to explain things to her in a manner that she would best understand.  Like when the subject of malaria came up, I told her that the mommy who was carrying a baby in her tummy died because she was bit by a sick mosquito.  Lesson: always wear Off lotion especially when we're in far away places so those sick mosquitoes won't bite you.

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I didn't want to give her big concepts just yet.  Only small deeds that she can grasp because she is, after all, only seven years old.  Awareness first; charity will come later.  How I wish my daughter was studying in Assumption instead. That would have made my job easier.   Plus, if we have the same alma mater, then that would be another cool thing that we have in common. Heehee!

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Anyway, I digress.  After explaining malaria and other things to her, I didn't really expect Aly to understand right away.  So after the show, she brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas and went back to the living room to sit beside me while I watch tv.  Then she told me: "Mommy, I wish those sick mosquitoes will just go away so they won't bite the mommies so the babies can be born and they will grow up and play."

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I want my daughter to grow up to be a good person -- I mean, who doesn't?  And I sometimes ask if I'm doing the right thing in raising her the way that I do.  I guess that statement from Aly is just the kind of affirmation that I need to know if we're going in the right direction.

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