I scanned the mess in our living room…and couldn’t help but smile.

Two kids sat at one end of a card table. One child flopped turkey slices on bread while the other added cheese. A third child was loading baby carrots into sandwich bags at the other end of the table, while the toddler did what she did best: cheerfully pull things out of place and generally add to the chaos.

Then the assembly process began. As the stacks of food dwindled, the other card table for finished sack lunches grew.

The kids were proud as they cleaned up the mess and surveyed their donation.

We took the sack lunches to the shelter as a family. The kids smiled and waved at the people milling around the shelter. Although they were from a completely different walk of life, it didn’t seem to matter to our kids or the people who stopped to chat.

As we drove home that afternoon, everyone felt really good.

I wish I could say every experience volunteering with kids was like this.

In reality, it’s not.

If volunteering with kids seems hard to you, you’re not alone. [Read more…]