Writing -- Baby Talk: Community spirit

The following article featured in a weekly column on parenting in the Women on Wednesday supplement of The Evening Echo, one of Ireland's leading regional daily newspapers. It appeared in the 19 May 2004 issue.

"You're going to have a job getting the girls clean!"

I looked up to where one of the other parents from playschool was pointing. There stood the twins, paintbrushes ready, covered from head-to-toe in foxfire red weathershield. There was paint in their hair, paint on their faces, paint on their hands, and their clothes were plastered with the stuff. It was so bad that as the paint on their leggings started to dry it made it difficult for them to bend their knees. They made a comical pair walking around John-Wayne-style getting more paint on themselves than they did on the wall.

We were painting the girls' playschool. My wife is a member of the playschool committee, and they had arranged a "working bee" - an Australian concept where a group of volunteers tackle a particular job. In this case the job in question was to smarten up the old national school that served as a home for the community playschool.

It was a glorious Sunday morning - one of those rare days when the sun blazes out of an uninterrupted expanse of blue. Of the million-and-one things I could have been doing on a day like that painting an old schoolhouse would have been fairly low on the list. But the girls seemed to be getting a great kick out of painting their playschool.

In fairness there were enough people to make light work of the project, and although we worked from 11am to about 7pm the pace wasn't exactly taxing. There was even a barbecue on the go, and a steady supply of char-grilled sausages and burgers to fuel the work effort.

Though I'm no great fan of painting, I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There's something wonderful about being outside on a beautiful day, working with a team of people to get a particular job done. Witnessing the difference that a small group of people can make in a relatively short time gives you a great sense of achievement, and the feeling of community spirit it engenders makes you proud of the place where you live.

The children got plenty out of the day too. Along with the twins there were four or five other children from playschool lending a hand, and all of them had a great time - although for some reason my two seemed to be the only ones completely covered with paint. Before we finished up all of the children were encouraged to paint their hands and make multi-coloured prints on one of the walls, then their names were written underneath as a semi-permanent record of their contribution.

I think letting the children participate in events like this is really important. As well as having a lot of fun, the kids seem to take things in on a subliminal level, almost absorbing the positive atmosphere around them. Children thrive on involvement, and letting them take part in projects like this helps them to value their surroundings.

Bringing up our children to respect the community in which they live and to appreciate the wider environment is one of the most important things we will ever do as parents. With luck they will grow up into a generation of adults who take pride in their surroundings, and who respect their environment on a local, national and global level. Maybe then the tide will turn and they will start to redress the decades of abuse we have inflicted on this planet we all call home.