Raising Each Other’s Children

“A Quaker Meeting […] is a fine place [in which] to bring up children when families do many things together – worship, play, and share the ups and downs of life. There was a group of about six families in our Meeting that shared so much that in a sense we all raised each other’s children and to this day we are one huge extended family, traveling any distance to be together for special life events like the next generation’s marriages.”

— Elise Boulding, 1975
Born Remembering

 

Did you have “family friends” growing up? Write a note to one of them, living or dead. Let them know they are important to you.

If not, write a note to an adult who was important to you as a child (a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, a coach, a neighbor).

Who belongs in Quaker community?

How does the intentional lack of a creed make belonging easier? Harder?

Author

  • Elise Boulding

    Elise M. Boulding (July 6, 1920 – June 24, 2010) was a Norwegian-born American Quaker sociologist, activist, and author. She was a major contributor to creating the academic discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies.

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