When Did the Happy Meal Toys Overtake My House?

Do you ever walk through your kids’ rooms and think about adding on another addition to the house to store the McDonald’s toy collection that took over the toy box like a coup d'état in a third world country?

Have you ever looked for your black shirt – not the V-neck, or the sweater…the scoop tee that looks so good with jeans – and realized you have ten of them with only slight variations?

Do you ever look into the eyes of your kids and have two simultaneous yet conflicting feelings – pleasure they’ll never know hardship the way you did when you grew up and sadness that they’ll never know hardship the way you did when you grew up?

When you throw away the week-old Chinese takeout container of mu shu pork, do you think about all the people your mother used to talk about when you didn’t clean your plate – the people half way around the world (or even your block) who would’ve devoured the leftovers you can’t even remember to eat?

Let’s face it. Even in a recession, we Americans have it pretty good.  If you’re like us, you enjoy the benefits of modern life – don’t iPhones make life so much more enjoyable? But we also struggle with how to balance our blessings with a desire to make a difference in the world, to connect with our communities, to fight against the constant sense of entitlement that pervades our children and teens.

Honestly, we don’t know exactly how to achieve this balance. However, we’ve found that something happens when kids and parents roll their sleeves up and start to serve others side-by-side…something amazing.  We call it “family based service,” a seemingly bland tagline that doesn’t quite capture the joy we’ve seen in our kids’ eyes as they pack boxes full of candy and new DVDs for a soldier in Iraq or stuff backpacks full of new pencils and folders for children in Tijuana.

We started SixSeeds because we have an inkling you’re looking for this ever-elusive balance too and just might need a nudge in the right direction, an understanding ear, or support in your decision to back the U-Haul up to the house to haul those toys to Goodwill.  Or maybe you’ve already fought these battles, figured out how to put the Wii on pause, and are raising kids who are, in fact, joyful givers and enthusiastic servers.

Either way, we’d love to walk with you and your families through these issues.  Perhaps together, we can fight against a culture urging us to supersize our stuff and satisfy every whim.  On this site, you’ll find some great resources by those putting the brakes on their parenting and being more deliberate in their service towards others.  We may not know exactly how this “balance” should look, but we definitely know how it doesn’t look.  It doesn’t look like boxes of unappreciated toys, it doesn’t look like kids who feel entitled to the latest iTunes downloads, and it doesn’t look like parents who close their eyes to the suffering in the world simply because it’s not right under their noses.

In short, it doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing.  To be honest, it doesn’t even look like what we’ve been doing.  But the good thing about seeds is the potential – the wonderful, amazing opportunity – for change.  For growth.  For something meaningful springing up from something small.

Our small and modest goal is to be better parents through “family based service and giving.” And – actually – it’s a very exciting concept.

Read more about this idea in subsequent editions...  better yet, leave a comment below on how you achieve this balance!