Every year on the first Monday of October, we celebrate Child Health Day. This year, Child Health Day fell on October 1st.
This is a national awareness day for parents and guardians to check-in with their children’s healths and to educate themselves about their expected developmental benchmarks. There are tons of flyers, posters and infographics from government agencies and nonprofits dedicated to promoting children’s health.
These are wonderful initiatives that seeks to nurture children so that they can achieve without limit and grow in potential.
The problem is that these are not enough. A day dedicated to children’s health is a good first step, but that is it, only the first step. If the United States is truly to be known as a country where children are nurtured and cared for, there are other, harder, realities that have to be confronted.
Children need to be welcomed.
The American culture that views babies as “burdens” or that asks mothers to choose between career and children is an unwelcoming culture. A culture that discriminates against pregnant women or that refuses to welcome children in the public sphere is not an atmosphere where children can grow.
All children need to be welcomed. Once we begin to make space for children, then we can call ourselves a country where children are cared for.
Children need to be educated.
All children deserve education so that they may have the opportunities to dream without limits and to hope without reserve. It may sound cliche but children are quite literally our future. They need to learn and to be curious and to explore so that all our futures will be bright.
Children need to be allowed all of these opportunities…by having the opportunity for life.
If we agree children should be taken care of, then why are we so careless with them? Abortion kills a child. When they are not even given the opportunity of life, children have no hope for growth and development in the United States.