Summer is coming to a close and autumn is just behind the door. This means that another scholastic year is due to begin. Navigating in a Catholic web site I came across a very interesting experience.

One fine Friday a certain Mr Graham drove home from work looking forward to enjoying one final leisurely summer week-end with his wife and children before the start of a new school year. It was not to be.

He entered the house to discover that his two oldest boys, a seven and a five year old, had trashed their bedroom during the day.

There was tempera paint on the walls and toys everywhere. "But why?" he angrily asked the boys. "Dad, that's how Picasso painted!" they promptly answered.

He was more than a little angry, and his sons got an earful about how upset he and their mother were with them and about what probably would have happened if, when he was a kid, his father had come home to discover the mess he had provoked in a room in their home.

Through their tears and confusion, the very frustrated Mr and Mrs Graham could see that their sons were really sorry.

In the midst of the scolding, cleaning and crying, the youngest son said, "Mum and Dad, we love you."

The couple realised that it was not the usual "I love you" that kids say to divert one's attention. It was really heartfelt and sincere.

It was a way for him to reassure himself and his other brother that in that family crisis, just before the week-end and another excit-ing school year, things were still okay between them and their parents.

Besides once again realising that things rarely go as we plan in family and community life, perhaps the biggest lesson this anything-but-leisurely evening experience taught these particular parents is that no matter how much children can frustrate us, whether as catechists, teachers, parents, carers, social workers etc, making them feel safe and loved is essential.

This couple reasoned that with another big effort adorned with sacrifice, and inviting strongly their children to give a helping hand in their way to clean the walls of the tempera paint with soap, water and what not, would definitely help the family be more united. They were convinced they were really and truly investing in the future of their children.

May God bless all of us as a new school year begins.

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