Volunteer opportunities to bring your kids too

[jodi]

My boys are 2 and 3. I was thinking of trying to find a volunteer opportunity that I can bring my oldest son to participate in with me, maybe like a food bank where he can help pack bags. Any thoughts or suggestions? Or do you think he's still too young?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

A food pantry could be a dangerous place for a 2 or 3 year old. Often lots of heavy boxes are stacked unsteadily upon other boxes or edges of tables and shelves. An impulsive or inattentive child could knock them over on themselves. Also a little one could easily bump into or trip people carrying or dollying heavy loads.

I used to take mine as soon as he could walk to help with three kinds of volunteer work. 1) Garden work where I was the only person working. For the garden work, he would bring his big plastic dump truck. I'd pull weeds, he would fill the truck with them, then he'd wheel the weeds over to where ever we were to put them. 2) And washing walls and floors. He could dip a rag or sponge into soapy water and rub it over the dirty surface and have a grand old time. Just getting the wall or floor wet was a help, in that it would loosen the dirt for me to go over well to remove. 3) Just being a pleasant visitor with homeless women. I'd go to the homeless shelter to do nothing in particular other than just be a friendly person willing to chat in an ordinary way. The women welcomed having some ordinary moments of unimportant chat. I'd just bring along my kid, as that is part of who I was. I was not there as a social worker, or job coach, or to preach at them, or teach them anything., or to impose anything. I was just there to be freindly. Nothing more. It was laid back and I hope gave a little cheer. My child was welcomed and often gave older women a chance to talk about their grown children's toddlerhood and gave young women who may have put their kids into emergency state custody a chance to talk about their kids. If you come with your young child into a situation like this, you will pretty much automatically be accepted.

I did not do this, but I have seen other parents take their preschool child into elementary schools during their volunteer time. I don't know what the toddlers did, but something , I suppose.

[PrincessPerky]

As a kid I used to go to a nursing home and just chat, if you have a relative in one, share your kid though I wouldn't take my son at 3 I would take my daughter (now 3)

Depends on the kid.

Food bank might be a bit much, but a 'feeder' collection (like church or cub scouts) would have less stuff, less people, and prolly a place for him when the attention span runs out.