No Home

When my 6 year old daughter E and 4 year old son C were on a trip with me, we saw a lot more people without a home than usual. It was spread out all over the city and suburbs and of course my kids had questions about it. We had a few conversations and it always pointed back to how grateful we should be for what we have.

When we came back from our trip, the kids got up really early one day and weren’t bothering me or my wife much. They also left their 1 year old brother L alone. By the time I finally got up, I was wondering what they were doing. L eventually was gathered in the same room when I went to talk to them. E said they were pretending to be homeless.

They were scavenging for food and counting how much money they had. They were also collecting their belongings and trying to be resourceful. It was definitely a new way of playing for them and they were creatively exploring the scenario to problem solve. It was also a sad way to play from a grown ups viewpoint because of the real life circumstances homeless people go through. This reminded me of the time E started to go to daycare during the COVID lockdowns and she came home, put any clear piece of plastic over her eyes (making a mask), and asked me and my wife if she could take our temperature. Cute, but sad at the same time.

I let them play the rest of the morning as I got ready and eventually had them stop to get ready themselves. My kids are really absorbing a lot of what we talk about and creative play is one way for them to better understand what is going on. They were literally trying to put themselves in other people’s shoes and maybe that’s what building empathy is all about.