The Parental Divide

The digital divide gets a lot of attention. But in addition to serving the growing digital needs of the community, libraries also serve our children by bridging what I like to term the parental divide. By parental divide, I mean that although some parents stay at home or have babysitters or tutors to look after their kids, many don’t! Some kids are on their own until their parents come home from work. And sometimes things are just rough at home. So where can these kids go? The library! In this way, the library staff becomes a kind of a substitute parent. We make sure the kids are doing their homework, we look at their report cards, we feed them and give them Band-Aids when they get hurt, we make sure they are occupied in a positive way, we teach them courtesies like saying “hello” and “thank you” and the right ways of behaving in a public space.