Volunteer opportunity w/ 3 year old?

[Anonymous]

Take some trash bags and gloves, and pick up litter around the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Volunteering should be a part of your day-to-day life. Not once a year "show-and-tell."

Oh for pity’s sake, they have some extra time at the holidays that they may not have available other times of the year. Everyone has to start somewhere.

No no they do this all year around apparently, just don't have any ideas right now.

No, we haven't ever taken our 3 year old with us, because the organizations we are involved with don't have activities appropriate for 3 year olds (food assistance, child welfare/CASA, etc). That's why we're asking for suggestions. Sigh

[Anonymous]

Look for a kid penpal service. At one point I think you could send postcards to the kids in detention centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a nursing home, what about a senior center? It's community based and serves a less medically fragile population, so worth calling to ask at least. Or you could make cookies and a card for a nursing home and drop them off. Those old folks are eating candy and cookies CONSTANTLY.

My church Sunday school makes packed lunches for the homeless and does "field trips" walking around and handing them out in Columbia Heights.

Nursing homes cannot just hand out baked goods made by a random outside person--nor should they, nobody wants your toddler's germs. Health violation and all that. I'm sure the front desk person will just pitch them in the trash.

And I'm not sure where you get the idea people in nursing homes are constantly eating candy and cookies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a nursing home, what about a senior center? It's community based and serves a less medically fragile population, so worth calling to ask at least. Or you could make cookies and a card for a nursing home and drop them off. Those old folks are eating candy and cookies CONSTANTLY.

My church Sunday school makes packed lunches for the homeless and does "field trips" walking around and handing them out in Columbia Heights.

Nursing homes cannot just hand out baked goods made by a random outside person--nor should they, nobody wants your toddler's germs. Health violation and all that. I'm sure the front desk person will just pitch them in the trash.

And I'm not sure where you get the idea people in nursing homes are constantly eating candy and cookies.

We have definitely made cookies for the residents at my grandmother's nursing home and watched them be passed out. This is a "nice" private pay home in Bethesda, so not talking about some cut rate place. I've also seen cards and drawings from schools. So before dismissing an idea outright, it's worth CALLING to ASK.

[Anonymous]

A 3 year old is a germy liability that prevents real work from being done. Harsh but true.

[Anonymous]

OP I posted this once and got all the same crazy-ass responses you're getting. I think it's a wonderful thing to instill the importance of volunteering in young children. I had to drop both my weekly volunteer activities when I had kids. I was stretched too thin between full-time work and having babies and something to had to give. I had to switch to a more episodic type of volunteer work and pitch in on weekend projects when I had time. I get it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Anyway, here's a website you can check out that might have some good options.

https://www.edcjcc.org/community/community-service-and-social-justice/days-of-service/d25-day-of-service/

There is a group that packages up toiletries and some other stuff for homeless shelters, and my 3 year old was able to unobtrusively help with that.

Another group does deliveries, which is a lot of car time, but certainly a 3 year old could help.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

You could do meals on wheels deliveries in your car with your child.

[Anonymous]

If you belong to a church check to see if they have a list of homebound members that are open to visitors. Our church does and the members would be over the moon for someone to come visit them and bring a 3 year old. It wouldn't have to be for a long visit but maybe a short visit this time would turn into an ongoing friendship where you could go and visit on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

pp from the church post- if you can't find anything else you could also keep it close to home and have your 3 yr old help you make something for a neighbor and then take it over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead of a nursing home, what about a senior center? It's community based and serves a less medically fragile population, so worth calling to ask at least. Or you could make cookies and a card for a nursing home and drop them off. Those old folks are eating candy and cookies CONSTANTLY.

My church Sunday school makes packed lunches for the homeless and does "field trips" walking around and handing them out in Columbia Heights.

Nursing homes cannot just hand out baked goods made by a random outside person--nor should they, nobody wants your toddler's germs. Health violation and all that. I'm sure the front desk person will just pitch them in the trash.

And I'm not sure where you get the idea people in nursing homes are constantly eating candy and cookies.

We have definitely made cookies for the residents at my grandmother's nursing home and watched them be passed out. This is a "nice" private pay home in Bethesda, so not talking about some cut rate place. I've also seen cards and drawings from schools. So before dismissing an idea outright, it's worth CALLING to ASK.

You have a personal relationship with the home. The administration, staff, and residents already see you and your child(ren) as “Larla’s family”. Baking them cookies is not a random volunteer effort. Do you not see the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I posted this once and got all the same crazy-ass responses you're getting. I think it's a wonderful thing to instill the importance of volunteering in young children. I had to drop both my weekly volunteer activities when I had kids. I was stretched too thin between full-time work and having babies and something to had to give. I had to switch to a more episodic type of volunteer work and pitch in on weekend projects when I had time. I get it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Anyway, here's a website you can check out that might have some good options.

https://www.edcjcc.org/community/community-service-and-social-justice/days-of-service/d25-day-of-service/

There is a group that packages up toiletries and some other stuff for homeless shelters, and my 3 year old was able to unobtrusively help with that.

Another group does deliveries, which is a lot of car time, but certainly a 3 year old could help.

Good luck.

Curious as to why you feel the responses “crazy ass”; is it jut or mostly because you don’t agree with them?

Not having a regular weekend volunteering gig after having children is one thing. Worrying about teaching your three year old the apparent value of volunteering *only on the holidays* is another.

People needing help is 24/7/365. Patting yourself for the back for teaching your children to be helpful seems to be a holiday themed trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take some trash bags and gloves, and pick up litter around the neighborhood.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I posted this once and got all the same crazy-ass responses you're getting. I think it's a wonderful thing to instill the importance of volunteering in young children. I had to drop both my weekly volunteer activities when I had kids. I was stretched too thin between full-time work and having babies and something to had to give. I had to switch to a more episodic type of volunteer work and pitch in on weekend projects when I had time. I get it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Anyway, here's a website you can check out that might have some good options.

https://www.edcjcc.org/community/community-service-and-social-justice/days-of-service/d25-day-of-service/

There is a group that packages up toiletries and some other stuff for homeless shelters, and my 3 year old was able to unobtrusively help with that.

Another group does deliveries, which is a lot of car time, but certainly a 3 year old could help.

Good luck.

Curious as to why you feel the responses “crazy ass”; is it jut or mostly because you don’t agree with them?

Not having a regular weekend volunteering gig after having children is one thing. Worrying about teaching your three year old the apparent value of volunteering *only on the holidays* is another.

People needing help is 24/7/365. Patting yourself for the back for teaching your children to be helpful seems to be a holiday themed trend.

I'm referring to comments like this:

Volunteering should be a part of your day-to-day life. Not once a year "show-and-tell."

The automatic assumption that:

1) You do nothing else
2) You're doing this purely for selfish reasons

When I posted this last year or the year before, people made comments like "Oooh, looking for your next Instagram post"? and crap like that. I've never once posted any volunteering I've done on any social media; I hardly even use social media.

Anyway, when I was a child, my dad took me along whenever he volunteered; to homeless shelters to hand out meals, animal shelters to clean cages and pet the animals, serving food at special holiday meals etc.

I was able to help out in all these events, and as an added "bonus", my father instilled a permanent sense of community, responsibility, compassion etc. that has lasted a lifetime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I posted this once and got all the same crazy-ass responses you're getting. I think it's a wonderful thing to instill the importance of volunteering in young children. I had to drop both my weekly volunteer activities when I had kids. I was stretched too thin between full-time work and having babies and something to had to give. I had to switch to a more episodic type of volunteer work and pitch in on weekend projects when I had time. I get it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Anyway, here's a website you can check out that might have some good options.

https://www.edcjcc.org/community/community-service-and-social-justice/days-of-service/d25-day-of-service/

There is a group that packages up toiletries and some other stuff for homeless shelters, and my 3 year old was able to unobtrusively help with that.

Another group does deliveries, which is a lot of car time, but certainly a 3 year old could help.

Good luck.

Curious as to why you feel the responses “crazy ass”; is it jut or mostly because you don’t agree with them?

Not having a regular weekend volunteering gig after having children is one thing. Worrying about teaching your three year old the apparent value of volunteering *only on the holidays* is another.

People needing help is 24/7/365. Patting yourself for the back for teaching your children to be helpful seems to be a holiday themed trend.

I'm referring to comments like this:

Volunteering should be a part of your day-to-day life. Not once a year "show-and-tell."

The automatic assumption that:

1) You do nothing else
2) You're doing this purely for selfish reasons

When I posted this last year or the year before, people made comments like "Oooh, looking for your next Instagram post"? and crap like that. I've never once posted any volunteering I've done on any social media; I hardly even use social media.

Anyway, when I was a child, my dad took me along whenever he volunteered; to homeless shelters to hand out meals, animal shelters to clean cages and pet the animals, serving food at special holiday meals etc.

I was able to help out in all these events, and as an added "bonus", my father instilled a permanent sense of community, responsibility, compassion etc. that has lasted a lifetime.

Ok, so you walk the walk. For a lot of posters, its just assuaging their generic Rich White Guilt.