Best Self Magazine

It Takes a Village: A Look at the Parental Community from Africa to Your Home

It Takes a Village: A Look at the Parental Community from Africa to Your Home, by Judy Marano. Photograph of people standing on the beach after sunset by Mario Purisic
Photograph by Mario Purisic

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

A rich community is not built by seeking only like-minded people, but rather seeking a diversity of traits which brighten and deepen your own

In over twenty years of teaching English as a Second Language, my students have shared the hardships they experienced in their journeys, from surviving war and famine to being smuggled across borders and fleeing gang violence. Their stories inspire me and usually do not shock me anymore… until this one.

I was recently rendered speechless when a student told me that babysitters were not a thing in their community in South Africa. Instead, children as young as 5 or 6 would be left home alone to care for their

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Best Self Magazine

Best Self Magazine4 min read
The Fundamental Principles of Allowance and How It Can Serve You
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Allowance is a tool which can quite literally change all aspects of life including relationships, finances, career and more. Although allowance is a powerful and pragmatic way of improving one’s life, it is not so
Best Self Magazine9 min read
Becoming Buddhist: A Calling for Personal Growth
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes — [This essay includes excerpts from This Fresh Existence: Heart Teachings from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda (Windhorse Publications, April, 2024)] I have always been a spiritual seeker. At age four, I asked my brother, w
Best Self Magazine7 min read
How I Left: Reflections on My Journey into Marriage…and Out
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — My grandmother was fourteen when a man in her Southern Italian village asked to marry her. He was twenty-eight, a stranger to Gramma. She said, No! But her mother told her, “Marry him. He’ll take you to America.”

Related Books & Audiobooks