The Starfish Effect

How Normalizing the Little Things Teaches Our Kids Everything About Being Good Citizens

You’ve probably heard the story of someone walking along a beach covered with thousands of starfish washed up by the tide, and then they see a child picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. The person says, “Why bother? There are so many washed ashore you can’t possibly make a difference.” The child picks up another starfish, throws it into the sea, and says, “It made a difference to that one.”

In many ways, this is exactly what we need to remember when it comes to parenting and guiding our kids as they grow up. We may want to save the world for them—or teach them how to save it themselves—but the truth is, it never starts on that scale. It always starts much smaller. We don’t need to teach them to save all the starfish, just the one in front of them, the one they can reach.

These are some reflections to keep in mind as we parent, ways we can model what we hope our kids learn and what it really means to be good citizens of the world: