Empower tots?? Hmm … kind of a strange concept you might wonder, and what does it even mean? If you’re like me, the parent of a young child (my daughter is now 7), and have thought lately about the world that your children will inherit a decade or more from today, when they are young men and women stepping out into the world then perhaps this exhortation is not so far fetched.

After all what do we as parents desire most fervently? That the prides and joys of our lives, the lights of our lives (those little bundles of joy we gingerly brought home wrapped in … that first day) inherit a peaceful, safe, beautiful, vibrant planet, and that they grow up healthy, happy, well-adjusted, and balanced, with foresight and intelligence, compassion and understanding, with the competence to tackle anything life throws at them, and with the ability to make the world – our world, their world – a better place.

I mean even a quick look at the statistics of just the last ten or so years, reveals some startling trends and facts about cancer, obesity, teen pregnancy, drug use, gang violence, pollution, deforestation, exposure to violence in societies, war, conflict, destruction, and the like. So how does one move our tots from an environment of mutual confrontation, environmental destruction and hatred to one of mutual respect, love, peace, and environmental consciousness? And, why is that even essential?

They will inherit our society, our culture, our values, and our planet and our world. The more we can empower them, the earlier we can enlighten them, the sooner we can strengthen them (internally, morally, physically, mentally, and psychologically), the more we can guide them towards timeless human values, the better citizens they will be, and a better world will they inherit!

Values that transcend culture, that transcend society, that transcend millennia – values that will prepare them to be stewards and heirs of this planet of ours. Values that take them away from the path of mutual confrontations, environmental destruction, and hatred towards an atmosphere of mutual respect, love, peace, environmental consciousness, with a focus on health, empathy for ones fellow humans, and respect for other cultures and societies.

If we keep walking down the same path we are on today, then there is little guarantee that we would leave them adequately prepared to be enlightened global citizens. And this is not just a matter of you taking care of your children either – for none of us lives in a vacuum! . A world that is morally, socially, environmentally, and financially bankrupt will never be the paradise we might hope it would be, no matter how much we think we have “prepared” our kids to face the future.

Is it the school system? Teachers? Tutors? Television? Public Radio? No, my friends, none of these can replace you – the parent! – it is us parents who have to help our children (and, perhaps, by extension ourselves too!) become strong human beings – capable of building an even better tomorrow for themselves and posterity.

What this needs, therefore, is a grassroots effort that will grow and involve as many concerned parents (and their tots!) as possible, for any lasting change in society takes at least a generation to manifest, and the time to start effecting that change is (you guessed it!) as early as possible. For, contrary to a lot of popular sentiment, values and morals are not set later in life, rather they are often decided (and remain largely unchanged) by the time we are 10, well before our teens!

For every stimulus we expose our tots to – every word, every sound, every action, every image – shapes their world view, shapes their consiousness, and like-it-or-not shapes their thinking and future behavior as adults. So, it would only make sense to fill these sensitive minds with thoughts, ideas, images, and sentiments that are a distillation of the highest forms of human values that we can – the best from different societies, from different cultures – the East, the West, the North and the South -- from China and India, Korea and Japan, to Egypt and Tanzania, Chile and Argentina, to France, Germany, Sweden and UK, to Australia and New Guinea – a smorgasbord of ideas, a wealth of …, a cornucopia of stories, which shape our minds, our thoughts, our bodies, and thus our actions!!

So, if you have this desire (and I absolutely know you do!), you have the motivation, and you have some eager tots who are depending on you, then you have come to the right place – for our goal is to embark on this journey together and to give you the very best information we can, culled from the best sources, for we are in this together – because I am the mother of a 7-year old, who has been contemplating these issues myself …

If you are a parent, and would like to share your story of how you are empowering your tots, then we would love to hear from you! Please click here "Empowering Tots - Sharing Parent's Viewpoint" and write to us!

If you are an educator, teacher, pediatrition then we would like to invite you to share your wisdom to help empower tots! Please click here "Empowering Tots - Sharing Expert's Viewpoint" and write to us!