This time of year when teachers ask their young children what each is thankful for, a good 90% respond enthusiastically, “My mommy!”  It’s not only that kids are copycats, saying just what the child before him has said,  it’s also that kids get it. They really are thankful for their mommies. (Forgive me, Dads. I am taking editorial license for the purpose of this blog. But I do not for a minute underestimate your importance and love for and by your children.)

Forever, the mother-child bond has been  depicted, portrayed, discussed, filmed, written about, but it just never ceases to amaze me.  Mother nature does such an incredible job of attaching us to our offspring, embedding the instincts that enable us to care for our children from the moment of birth. It is  true with all  of her creatures. Perhaps that’s the most amazing part!

Recently, I received the  link to a video clip of the birth of an elephant. (It is graphic, be forewarned!)  I watched it with my jaw down to my knees. Share it with the people you love, who will appreicate its magnificence.  Watch it with your child (perhaps six years old and beyond, depending upon his development and maturity.)  Talk about it. Use it as a spring board for discussions of birth,  where babies come from, animal instincts, of mommy and daddy love. Be brave and let your child lead the conversation, even going in “those” directions. Be the mommy who answers all questions honestly and openly. That’s part of your mommy job   Celebrate the miracle of the mother-child bond. It is my gift to you on Thanksgiving.

 Last month, staff at the Elephant Safari Park in Taro, Bali, filmed one of its elephants giving birth. The footage is jaw-dropping remarkable, not just because of the birth, but because the videographer captured the mother desperately trying, over and over again, to save her apparently still-born infant. (It does have a happy ending.)

Happy Thanksgiving.

Click below or cut and paste.

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/656611/d1dfcfee/

As Thanksgiving approaches, most of us firm up plans for “the feast.”  At whose house will it be? What will I bring? What’s the best sweet potato recipe?  Then the day comes and it’s all about rush-rush, clean the house or clean the kids, cook the food, set the table, get everyone dressed…and then it’s over. 

Maybe the kids talked about  Thanksgiving  at school. They told the story (remembering the Mayflower, the pilgrims, the Native Americans–Indians is not pc). They planted corn, made corn bread, ground cranberries. And finally, they talked about what each child was thankful for (each child repeating what the one before him said…”my mommy, my mommy, my mommy, my daddy…”)

It’s all good and yummy. But what’s a parent to do to make it meaningful?  After all, thanksgiving is about expressing gratitude.

I think the problem is that we at home aren’t doing our part to bring out the thanks in Thanksgiving.  In fact, what we should be doing is making gratitude a part of every day. But that’s another topic. (In my new book which will be released next April, I have a whole chapter just on gratitude!)  Why not make a little more of Thanksgiving by putting the thanks back into it as the holiday approaches?

A client of mind shared a tradition that her family has developed. On the first day of November, each family member is assigned a color strip of paper on which he will write every day something for which he is grateful. (The little ones get to dictate), completing the phrase, ”I am thankful for…” on his color strip of paper. Daily those strips are collected into a special container. And on Thanksgiving, with great ceremony, the strips are read. Some of the answers are sincere, some are emotional, some are just plain silly or repetitive, but all are given equal air time. Everyone gets to hear what others have said.  And I can promise you, it is both thought and conversation provoking. Children actually absorb what others say and do!

When it comes right down to it, what are you grateful for? Does your child know that? Being grateful starts with creating a consciousness about it and not just at school and not only on the third Thursday of November.