When I was a little girl, I always assumed that humans all had some good in them. I was aware that there were bad people in the world.

Without knowing them, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were just misguided when doing harmful things.

I know now that this isn’t the case. I think my parents sheltered me to the evils of the world. As they should. Why did I need to be exposed to that at an early age?

However, in a way, I wish I would have been more prepared for the world when I set out on my own. I was under the impression that if you were kind to someone, they would be kind to you in return.

Sadly, that isn’t the way it is in this world. I had to learn the hard way that my kindness won’t always be met with kindness. I learned that as a group, humans are selfish and don’t generally care who they hurt to get what they want.

There Is Good And Evil In The World

I don’t want to sound all doom and gloom about it. It’s just the reality of the situation. Obviously there are exceptions to this. Not everyone is a “bad” person. I’d like to think I am one of those people.

I will never go out of my way to hurt someone. I always weigh my options before I act. I want to make sure that I don’t step on anyone’s toes in order to get what I want.

Photo by Raul Varzar on Unsplash

I Want My Kids To Learn Kindness

I hope I pass this kindness and consideration onto my children. My goal in life is to raise kind humans. I talk about that more here:

Hopefully I can raise them to be kind and helpful people. I like to show them that you don’t have to break others down in order to build yourself up.

While I would like to shelter them from the evils of the world, the fact of the matter is, they already have a vague idea of what is happening around them. I want them to be aware that not everyone has their best interests in heart.

Experiencing “Evil”

Currently one of our kitty cats is missing. I am normally very careful about whether the cats get out but things have been pretty hectic around our house and one slipped out the other morning.

The boys saw Grey Face (yes, that’s his name. The kids named him) on their way to the bus stop. He followed them there and waited with them until they got on the bus. We haven’t seen him since.

There is word on the streets that one of our neighbors has a cat trap on his property. My boyfriend confirmed this because he checked the trap for our cat. However, Grey Face hasn’t been caught yet.

I told my boys about this to make sure they are very careful about letting the other cats out. Needless to say, they were MAD and very worried about poor Grey Face.

Explaining “Good” and “Bad” To Kids

Because they are my children and because I suffer from anxiety, they are both very worried about any cat that could get trapped, not just Grey Face. It’s all they can talk about.

They just can’t understand why a person would want to trap cats. I understand why the neighbor would want to. There are a lot of stray cats around this town and perhaps he is getting a bit tired of them being in his yard.

My kids have made this neighbor out to be a horrible person. I guess depending on what he is doing with the cats once they are trapped, he could be considered “bad” and “mean”.

Photo by Emre Gencer on Unsplash

As they were leaving for the bus this morning, they were talking about this situation.

My oldest said, “Why are people so mean? This world is horrible!”

I said, “Hun, there are bad people in this world but there are also a lot of good people so let’s just focus on that.”

My middle son joined in, “Yeah! Let’s try to be nice! Let’s be the nice ones!”

That comment made my heart swell with pride. Yes! Let’s be the nice ones. There is no reason not to be nice. What benefit do you get from being mean? None that I have ever found.