I can not help but wonder…

What are we teaching our children?

Last night, I dropped my parents off at the airport. They’re headed back home to Canada for three or four months. While I drove, my mother explained to me that my sister was impatiently awaiting her arrival, because my 15-year-old niece had finally agreed to accompany her to visit with my mom, her grandmother. My niece has spent the greater part of last year as a juvenile delinquent. She’s run away from home, quit school, and taken to drugs and most likely even sex, as she’s run off with a 19-year-old known drug dealer; her boyfriend. My niece has evaded her mother and even ignored police requests that she return home, ever since. My sister, her mother is a good woman; a good mother, who also has twins at the age of two to raise now.

The last time I saw my niece was just a year or two ago. She’d come here to vacation. During her stay, she constantly reminded me of the promise I’d made her years ago that I quit smoking; she even brought the paper she’d made me sign, when she was just a little thing, saying I would quit. Her biggest interest in life while she was here was getting on the quads and screaming through the desert dunes. My brother, who is also back home now, currently describes her as a druggie. Whose fault is this?

My mom went on to tell me that she intended to visit with my niece and nephew to my other sister, but that my father wouldn’t be joining her as he didn’t want to deal with the stress of seeing their parents. You see, for the last three years, these children both under the age of eight, have been playing musical houses, between their drug-addicted, alcoholic father, my hypochondriac, cheating, completely insane sister, and one careless social-home or government allotted home after another. At present, they’re both with their father. These children are almost certain to grow into something dangerous to both themselves and society. And none of it is their fault.

My thoughts for the children go beyond the current wars; go beyond the terror that Iraq, Afghanistan, Mumbai, Occupied Palestine and Lebanon are facing on a daily basis. My thoughts for the children reach those who are aware of these events and those who aren’t. And I’ve been stuck in these thoughts for the last few days.

Since my son is currently with me, I’ve watched him closely for the last few days as these thoughts festered in my mind. He’s just three and I couldn’t even start to guess where he’s headed in the future. But I’ll tell you, I’m scared. Perhaps I’m just paranoid. Perhaps he’s just a boy and all boys are in love with guns and violence. Perhaps I should have shouted louder or made a bigger fuss when my ex-husband first bought him a toy gun, or first allowed him to watch a violent movie. Perhaps, there was nothing I could do. But my son is in love with violence and he’s just three-years-old; too young to even know what violence really is.

These days, I’m thinking about the children; what they’re exposed to wherever they are, what we’re teaching them whoever we are, and what we should or could be doing to protect their future.

Photo’s taken from Gulf News