As parents, we want our children to grow up with a strong sense of family. We want them to know where they came from just as much as we want them to discover who they are. There are many things that we do as parents that develop that sense of family, and many times we do them without even thinking about it. Each time you arrange for your children to spend time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives you are creating opportunities for them to build relationships with those relatives as well as opportunities for learning more about their family.
I realized this the other day when I noticed that many times when my two and a half year old son talks about going somewhere, he talks about all of the people that he wants to go there with him. For example, I told him one day that we were going to a playground and then to the grocery store. He wanted to know “whobody” was going to go to the playground with us. “Whobody” is his cute way of mixing up “who” with “somebody”. He then proceeded to ask if Dada, Papa Jim, G’ma, Grandpa Terry, Grammy Karen, LaLa and Far Away LaLa and Uncle Andy were all going to the playground. At two and a half, he can name all of his grandparents and most of his aunts and uncles. I have not done anything extraordinary to bring this about, I have been doing what I can only assume that most parents do – making time for the boys to visit with their family.
As they grow older, I look forward to exploring their family history with them. We can pretend that we are detectives, looking for clues that will help us fill in the spaces on our family tree. We can look at old family photographs and try to guess who’s who, and we can look in all kinds of neat books and records to find out the things that we do not know. Those days are still a ways off, but I am looking forward to them because looking at genealogy research with the eyes of a child is likely to be refreshing and fun.
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