A Good Home for Children

I always tell Hubby, I'm okay with a quaint house with a koi pond, a large backyard to grow our mini-farm, solar panels to boot, a carpentry workshop to our fancy, and some other things. And just to clarify, I don't dream of a castle or a great mansion for a home. That will be too much of a chore and operational expenses would be high. Besides, with a house so big, we might not bump into each other or see our children anymore.

Material and physical specifications of our future home is relatively easy to manage. But to make it into a real home is totally a different thing.


I did some bookshelf cleaning the other day and I found an old issue of Voices for Life, a bi-monthly publication of Human Life International Asia. In the pages of its Volume IV, Number 2 issue in 2000, I found this article about a good home as defined by the Committee on Home Responsibility of the National Conference of Juvenile Delinquency (USA). I'm posting here their definition for everyone to read.

A Good Home for Children - A good home for children may be a one-room apartment, a trailer, or a twelve-room house, but it is a good home for a child if:

1. He is loved and wanted - and knows it.
2. He is helped to grow up by not having too much or too little done for him.
3. He has some time and some space of his own.
4. He is part of the family, has fun with the family and belongs.
5. His early mistakes and "badness" are understood as a normal part of growing up; he is corrected without being hurt, shamed or confused.
6. His growing skills - walking, talking, reading, making things - are enjoyed and respected.
7. He plans with the family and is given real ways to help and feel needed throughout childhood.
8. He has freedom that fits his age and his needs; he has responsibilities that fit his age, abilities and freedom.
9. He can say what he feels and talks things out without being afraid or ashamed; he can learn through mistakes as well as successes. And his parents appreciate his successes rather than dwell upon his failures.
10. As he grows older, he knows his parents are doing the best they can; they know the same about him.
11. He feels his parents care as much about him as they do about his brothers and sisters.
12. The family prays and sticks together and the members help one another.
13. He is moderately and consistently disciplined from infancy, has limits set for his behavior , and is helped to take increasing responsibility for his own action.
14. He has something to believe in and work for because his parents have lived their ideals and religious faith.

Photo credit: http://www.j-morrison.com/index.php?/paper-towels/