{"id":4539,"date":"2019-02-11T16:57:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T16:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/?p=4539"},"modified":"2023-09-04T22:26:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T04:26:25","slug":"caribbean-parenting-amongst-the-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/caribbean-parenting-amongst-the-weeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Caribbean Parenting Amongst the Weeds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up, my mom would say that we were growing “like weeds.” I never really liked the comparison. Weeds. Weeds are unwanted. Weeds show up when you are trying to do something good and make something beautiful. They show up to take up space and water and sunshine that is meant for the good plants to enjoy. They strangle the good plants and stunt their growth, sometimes killing them altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Caribbean<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While I didn’t like the comparison, I did, however, really like weeds. Some of them were so beautiful to me. The fact that they had the nerve to be cute, completely useless, and dangerous all at the same time was fascinating. I liked the little yellow dandelion flowers the most. You could spend hours collecting enough for a tiny bouquet, but before you could run inside, they’d be wilted and dead. They refused to be captured. If you left them alone you could enjoy them, but if you plucked them up and took them somewhere else, they would die. The introvert in me identified completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If I was going to be a weed, I was going to be a dandelion. Beautiful in my own right, and better when left alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: Caribbean Moms Talk Parenting Styles at Beaches Resort in Jamaica<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As I got older, and learned more about dandelions, I found out that they aren’t weeds at all really. They are actually extremely useful plants. They don’t need fertilizer, attract bees because they are a source of nectar and pollen, are important food sources for birds, have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine to treat all manner of ailments in humans, and don’t require great soil to grow in. There are dandelion farms where they are grown commercially. If you do decide to grow them as a houseplant indoors, fertilizer and good soil makes them even better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus told the parable of the weeds<\/a> , he couldn’t have been talking about dandelions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to think that dandelions aren’t really weeds at all. While they can be mistaken for weeds, and labeled a nuisance to advance the “weed killer” agenda, they aren’t REALLY weeds in the true sense – not at all like the weeds Jesus would have burned up.They have weed like tendencies in that they don’t need a lot of care to grow, and a lot of times they show up uninvited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n