Holidays time for enjoying family

WHANAU: Kelly with some of the Upokongaro School knitters, part of her 'family'. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

School holidays are well and truly here, with the library humming with the energy of the tamariki who chose to spend time with us; how privileged we are!
For me as a working mum, the holidays are always a bit of a juggle, but I do try and have a few days to have a bit of fun with the kids, all to strive for work / life balance. My reading has suffered through sheer exhaustion in the past few weeks, with only a few pages being read before I head off to the land of slumber. In saying this though, I am well on track with my Reading Challenge for 2016 with 26 books read, with the goal being 45 books read in total for the year. I am quietly stoked.
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about family. What makes a family? Who is family... and I came to the conclusion that family means a lot of things to a lot of different people. There is:
- The traditional nuclear family model consisting of parent(s) + kids + grandparents + aunts / uncles / cousins.
- The whanau / hapu / iwi model.
- The broader wide view that encompasses both of the models above but also looks towards friends as family also.
I have always had the wider sense of family. I grew up with my parents' friends being an extension of my already abundant whanau and so it seemed natural that I would go on to raise my own children with this model of family. Watching my children engage with our whanau across the spectrum gives me a huge feeling of pride and an even greater sense of community. Now in my role as a community librarian my own personal idea of family has been stretched and broaden in terms of what family means to me. My community is an extension of my wider family.
Some of you may cringe at that statement, but for me it is a living truth, it is a way of being, existing and being holistically engaged in all facets of my life. I guess maybe in part it is because of my upbringing where you knew everyone in your neighbourhood and everybody knew you... not always a good thing as a teenager! In reflection I can also see that my work in my prior professional life as a social / community worker has enabled me to see the relationship and commonalities between families and community. And now I am community librarian who lives, thrives and works within my self-described extension of my family, which in some ways means I care more deeply about the work I do and the people I serve.
The past few years have taught me that the old saying of blood is thicker than water isn't a valid one... at least in this librarian's world anyway.
Cultivate some kindness in your community.
Carpe Librum!
For more information please feel free to contact me kelly@whanganuilibrary.com or via my Facebook page www.facebook.com/inkedlibrarian/ or follow me on twitter @inkedbibliofilo