Do my kids know "What kids should know about their family's history?"

Last night we had parent invite night at my kids school, where you go and meet the teachers, see their rooms and the school, and they also had a silent auction as a fundraiser.  I love going to these things with my kids.  While in Maddie's room, I noticed hanging on the wall a story she wrote titled "How I got my name.".  It was beautiful and well written...the problem was that it was a mix of how she got her name and how her brother got his name.  As I walked away, I thought I really need to tell her how she got her name.  Intentions right....

I spend a lot of time working on my family history and that of my husband's, but this morning it occurred to me that very rarely do I share those stories with my children.  I share with my husband especially if I am needing feedback or find something really cool.  But very rarely do I share with my kids.

One of the things that frustrates me to no end, is the fact that my Grandma & Grandpa Adamson didn't talk to my Dad and his brothers about well hardly anything relating to the family.  Case in point, my Dad and Uncle's had no clue that my Grandpa had an older brother named Elmer Adamson that died when he was just 11.  It is possible that my Grandpa didn't know about his brother as he was young when he passed BUT his older brother's and sister had to remember him as they were all so close in age.  Why didn't my family talk about these things?!?!  Could be a sign of the times or could be that it was painful to talk about...the point is they didn't talk.  Sad?...why yes! very sad to me. 

So why if I am constantly frustrated by the lack of story telling in my family am I NOT telling my kids about their family history.  I am just keeping that circle of non communication going.  I know somewhere in the back of my mind I think "oh when they are older I will tell them".  The thing is that life is not guaranteed.  I could be sent back to my Heavenly Father at any time and any place.  And all those stories will be stuck in my very unorganized research and in my mind.  I should not be waiting to tell these stories.

Well this morning I read a blog post on the Lifehacker blog about "What kids should know about their family's history?".  This post talks about how important it is for children to know about their family history and how it affects their self esteem, depression and anxiety levels and how they interact with their family members.  There is a set of 20 questions that make up the "Do You Know scale" created by Emory University and University of North Carolina researchers.  Here is a link to the 20 questions on The House Mustardseed blog.  As I was reading through this list of questions, I realized I am not sure just how many my kids could answer.  What!?!? How can that be!! How can such a big family history person have children that can't answer 20 pretty simple questions!!

I can tell you that I am going to be a lot better about sharing all this wonderful knowledge with my kids...and no I won't wait till they are older! Now is the time to talk with my kids.  Life is short...love your family enough to talk about them.  Find them and share them.  And not just with the older member's but the younger generation.  Someday we will be the older generation...don't wait.... 

They are going to know who these people were before they were "Mom & Dad"!

                                             Theron & Mindy Oct 2002