Leora Tripp Week 5: The Benefits of Spending Time with Kids

October 25, 2022

     Growing up in a family of seven with four siblings, I quickly adapted the qualitative skills that come with caring for children. Through my experience with my own siblings and my time spent teaching and volunteering in youth groups within my community; I developed a deeper understanding of children's behavior. I have also seen the personal results that come with spending time with children. In my time as a youth leader and ballet teacher, I have found that children are clever and argumentative, yet they lack responsibility and independence. No matter how confident a child may seem, he/she will always need an older figure to look up to and rely on. To properly take care of a child, one must fulfill this role as a reliable and dependable figure. This alone requires a substantial amount of self-confidence and maturity. 

    Naturally, I am well aware of my own siblings; knowing what instigates them and what excites them, what their weaknesses are and what their strengths are, and most importantly the skills and tricks they use to argue with and persuade me. However, as I got older, I started volunteering at my synagogue weekly to take care of the children at my shul and quickly found how challenging it was to take care of children whom I was not familiar with. Each child was different and had their own quirks that changed the way they behaved and responded to me. I had to learn to adapt to each of their personalities to be a reliable leader and teacher to them. Most importantly, the children trusted me and I started to establish relationships with them in and out of the classroom. As I became more familiar with the children in my youth groups, I was able to expand on the skills I already had as a child of five, seeing vast improvements in my communication skills and maturity. My parents even noticed that I became a more responsible figure, taking accountability for my own work and obligations. Do you have any powerful lessons or qualities you have learned from spending time with kids?