When the child was more than 1 year old, I found that he was interested in cigarette butts.
Once, he picked up a cigarette butt and was so excited that he seemed to have found a treasure. I thought the cigarette butt was too dirty and stopped him from picking it up every time. He was very unhappy, probably because of rebellion, and the more he did not let him pick up cigarette butts, the more interested he became in cigarette butts, and sometimes sneaked to pick them up.
This bothered me.
One day, when he was interested in cigarette butts again, I suddenly thought, why can't I buy a garbage stick? With the garbage stick, it is both environmentally friendly and hygienic, and children can pick up cigarette butts as much as they want. Thinking of this, I did it.
The mother-in-law's journey to pick up garbage
The children especially liked the garbage pole, and they had to carry it every time they went out, and since then, we both began the journey of picking up garbage.
Every day my son had a garbage stick in his hand and a garbage bag in my hand and started picking up the first cigarette butt I saw downstairs. He put it in a garbage bag until he didn't want to.
Gradually, I began to encourage my children to pick up other garbage as well. We picked him up as long as it was garbage, and the child was very happy to pick it up.
We went to a lot of places with garbage sticks. Sometimes I pick up garbage in the community, sometimes I pick up garbage by the lake, and sometimes I pick up garbage in the park.
In the process of this behavior, the child naturally does not litter.
Sometimes he would say, Mom, my hand hurts when I pick it up, but what if I still have the garbage to pick up. I would say to the child, just pick it up as much as you can, and if you're really tired, let's get here today.
This is the reason for telling children to stop at the right time.
Sometimes the garbage is very small, the child repeatedly operates the garbage pole several times is not completed, angry and unwilling to pick up, I will say to the child, this garbage is really difficult to pick up, the mother also sees that the baby is really hard, now do not want to pick up the mother can also understand, but we do things to have a beginning and an end, the mother and you to pick up together is not good?
This exercises the child's patience.
Such conversations come up many times in the process of picking up trash.
Top 3 benefits of picking up trash with kids
Generates yang qi, nourishes the mind and enhances concentration
There are many people who will say why let children pick up garbage, how dirty. But in my opinion, picking up trash has at least three of those benefits.
01
Sweep the garbage, clean the mind
My experience is that the garbage is indeed very dirty, but in the process of picking up the garbage, I feel that not only the road is clean, but the garbage in my heart seems to be cleaned up.
It's a magical feeling that needs to be experienced firsthand. Why do we clean up our homes regularly, donate clothes we don't wear, and clean up the things under the bed and under the sofa? Why do we feel refreshed after cleaning up?
I think the process of cleaning up is adjusted by the spirit in our hearts.
Chinese medicine often mentions a few words: jing, qi, and god. These three words are related to our true satisfaction and happiness. I think we are not alone, we are connected to everything, cleaning up the home is to clean up the small environment, cleaning the road is to clean up the big environment. We are closely connected to the environment, so you see the garbage on the road, it is possible that it is also the garbage of your mind, you pick it up, restore it to where it should be, and the negative emotions in your heart are also released.
02
Exercise gives birth to yang qi, pay for yang qi
For children, sports are like games, picking up garbage is also a game, and it is a game done with their mothers. Moreover, picking up garbage is also a relatively mild exercise.
Chinese medicine believes that too much intensity of exercise will make the body's qi machine completely open, so that on the one hand, it is easy to dissipate too much, on the other hand, it is easy to suffer from the invasion of evil qi. Picking up garbage is very gentle, which can make children have yang qi in exercise, but not to the extent of dissipation.
For example, one afternoon, with warm sunlight sprinkling on our shoulders, we started a game of picking up trash. How many cigarette butts we picked up today, let's count them together, this is a good parent-child interaction.
Anyway, it's all playing with children, so can we do something meaningful? When we pay, do we feel that there is a warm current going up in our hearts, and this warm current is the yang qi, nourishing our physical and mental health growth.
03
Exercise fine hand movements
Improve concentration and self-confidence
We adults can skillfully pick up all kinds of garbage with garbage poles, which is not easy for children. Those very thin cigarette butts, lollipops of lollipops, transparent plastic paper require him to put a lot of effort into it, left and right hand collaboration to complete. This process can exercise your child's concentration.
Sometimes passers-by would stop to see what he was doing and ask me why I had my child pick up the garbage, and I talked to passers-by without any distractions and concentrated on picking up the garbage.
Moreover, picking up a very small garbage, the child will have a great sense of accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment makes children more confident.
Self-confidence is a person to complete a thing that they think is difficult to produce from the heart, we adults praise you are awesome, it will not make the child's heart self-confidence.
Of course, after picking up the garbage, I will tell the child that the hands are dirty, let's put it away, don't touch the eyes and nose. You have done what the child wants to do, and he will do what you tell him to do according to your will. Or you can bring alcohol wipes and wipe your child's hands after picking up the trash.
My children and I picked up a pile of chirping plastic sugar paper, flipped open the stubborn stones, rescued the depressed bottle caps, picked up a lonely spicy strip on the side of the road, and picked up dazzling toilet paper in the bushes. We often pay attention to what we can eat and what we can drink, and make up for it on the physical level.
In fact, as human beings, we have a heart, and it also requires us to replenish energy from time to time. This is also what the classic Chinese medicine advocates, and the body and mind are adjusted together.
Serving others is also serving ourselves, and every little good we do will eventually converge into great energy to turn back to ourselves. I want everything to be in place, to be pure in mind, to protect the environment, and to do what I can.
Author | peach
Edit | pillar
Proofreading | Yukimi
Illustration | Jasmine & Alaya
About author:Peach, Sheep Daddy ABC course student, Daxibao Mom, Sheep Daddy Iron Fan.