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You’re More Powerful Than You Feel
Anyone can make an impact, even the least of us
My youngest daughter has been telling everyone we have a new pet — it’s a whale.
My children are 9 and 13. Like other young children, they don’t have a lot of power in this world. They don’t get to say where they live, what they do, or where they go a lot of the time (especially now that my country is in lockdown).
Most kids have very little power or influence but last week mine proved it’s still enough to make an impact. They proved they still have some control over their world and what happens in it. Even now, when most of us feel we’ve lost control.
At a time when our kids are feeling powerless in the face of crisis, it’s good for them to know they still have some control. We all need to know that.
It started a month ago when my girls asked to do chores around the house for coins. They’re great savers and I assumed they’d seen something they wanted to buy. My 9-year-old did dishes, earning 2 cents a dish, and my 13-year-old vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom. Every day they asked how much they could earn doing various chores. At the end of the week, I handed over the cash.
My girls reached into the pantry, pulled out a jar labelled “giving” (small change gets popped in it…
