{"id":1548,"date":"2010-09-13T09:13:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T16:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:51:08","slug":"it-takes-a-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1548","title":{"rendered":"It takes a village"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day my kids were in the car with me.\u00a0 The youngest two were in the back seat playing a DS game.\u00a0 Conor, the 8 yr old, was doing the playing.\u00a0 Evan, the 11 year old, was watching\/coaching. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Evan:\u00a0\u00a0 You can fight or you can run.\u00a0 Hey, why did\u00a0 you run away?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conor:\u00a0 (harassed tone)<\/em> I don’t have TIME to FIGHT! <\/strong><\/p>\n

I grinned wondering if he’d been born a bit like me.\u00a0 The multi-tasker who\u00a0 loves to complete… taking on more and more until it seems we’re always juggling.\u00a0 This trait of mine has been a blessing and a burden and is a symptom of our society.\u00a0 In my opinion, though, we do it because we CAN.\u00a0 Working and keeping up with the news and friends,\u00a0 juggling input and output.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because we are social beings and having the input of others is important.\u00a0 Especially over jobs, relationships and kids.\u00a0 Its why the saying, “It takes a village…” resonated with so many women.\u00a0 Because sometimes we can’t do it ALL for our kids.\u00a0 And sometimes another person can connect with them on a level we cannot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet we need to remember that almost EVERY village has an idiot!\u00a0 People who insist they know more about things than you do.\u00a0 (My neighbor is a woman like that.. and most of us just ignore her.) \u00a0 And people who’ve never had kids, or never had lazy kids, or never had overweight kids, or special ed kids… these people who judge with their opinions without ever walking in your shoes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes it takes a village… a strong blacksmith to keep things working, several cooks to add variety to the food source, lots of hunters and growers to keep the food supply coming.\u00a0 Someone smart to lead, even more to follow.\u00a0 And it takes the curious to discover\u00a0 new ways to try things.\u00a0 It takes the risk-taker to jump in and do it.\u00a0 It takes the believer to support it.\u00a0 It takes the entertainer to keep everyone happy when their spirits are low.\u00a0 And it takes the idiot to show us that EVERY person is a person no matter how different their ideas are.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the old days we banded together as a village.\u00a0 Then we whittled it down to banding together as a family.\u00a0 Today, as families become fluid and opinions change within them, we band together with our friends.\u00a0 The hardest part being finding friends who fit you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch the movie, All About Steve<\/em>, with Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper.\u00a0 It’s not hysterical, its cute.\u00a0 But what’s wonderful about it is the message.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Find Your Tribe. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve been discovering mine and loving it.\u00a0 Its amazing to find the meaning of “Joy” at 47.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day my kids were in the car with me.\u00a0 The youngest two were in the back seat playing a DS game.\u00a0 Conor, the 8 yr old, was doing the playing.\u00a0 Evan, the 11 year old, was watching\/coaching. Evan:\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-joy-of-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}