Roll of Honour, Australia War Memorial, Canberra – Source

Today is ANZAC Day here in Australia. A day Australians and New Zealanders (ANZAC standing for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps) remember the landing on the beaches of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers  in the Gallipoli Peninsular, Turkey on April 25, 1915. It’s also a time to reflect the loss of lives of those men and women who have served in every other conflict since. It was such a huge sacrifice and has enabled my family and I to live the life we do. A life of freedom. 

Last Friday, my children’s school had an ANZAC ceremony, as they do every year and it’s very touching and very emotional. My daughter was in the school choir and sang beautifully and my son, was seated two rows in front of me. As a 9 year old, he has ants in his pants and I found him giggling as the service began. This got me cranky so I went and sat in between him and his school friends. Boy, was he mad. I think I embarrassed him more than anything but I’d hate to think what would’ve happened if I hadn’t. I probably would’ve got a letter from the School Principal saying my son should show more respect.

It’s not that he doesn’t know how to show respect. He’s learnt about ANZAC Day every year since he started school (5 years now) and he has just begun going to Boy Scouts and has been learning all about it there. He is also attending the local dawn service with his father and sister so he does know about it but I think, at his age, he’s learning the facts and that’s about all. I know no one really wants to know about the full brutality of the war but I’m afraid, with this generation, including my children, they feel so privileged, like they should get everything they want, without sacrifice or giving up something. Something these poor men and women who served in conflicts never ever did. They were proud to serve their country. Proud to volunteer for such atrocities that you and I just couldn’t imagine.

I don’t want to frighten my son, as he’s only young and quite sensitive to horrific things so I don’t want to give him nightmares, but I want him to remember, for the rest of his life, that the life he is living is thanks to those people who sacrificed their lives for us. These are just some of the things I want to tell him and my daughter.

SACRIFICE

Life’s not a free ride. You don’t get something for nothing. You have to work for it, sacrifice or give something up to achieve that. So many times, they think they do a week’s chores or do well on their end of term report cards that they just expect a present or reward. Soldiers who are deployed into conflicts are probably well aware of the risk associated with where they’re going. (I bet those who went off into World War I didn’t have a clue.) But I bet they’re all willing to take that risk and sacrifice their lives for our freedom. Even though my children don’t always get want they want, they have had very little experience with giving something up in order to achieve something else. They’re learning through doing chores around the house and earning pocket money but they still have a long way to go when it comes to giving up something in order to give to others. 

BRAVERY

My children are afraid of their own shadows sometimes. My daughter has been afraid of just about every insect known to mankind. At the moment it’s cockroaches and if she sees one, she has an absolute meltdown. My son is a little more tough when it comes to having falls from his bike, for example, and getting back on it. But they need to be aware of just how brave these poor soldiers were, going to unknown countries, fighting battles that were hard to understand and witnessing death and disease all around them. They were brave and from things I’ve read, they always made light of the situation they were in. Australians are a funny lot in that they always try to make light of a bad situation. One video clip I saw recently was of a World War II veteran who was a POW in Changi. He said he and his mates had nothing much to do (other than starve to death and be beaten by the enemy) but there were a lot of frogs around them. They got the frogs and tamed them then started racing them. Even the Japanese soldiers were betting on them. My children always feel so hard done by when things aren’t going their way. It’s about being brave when facing adversity and making light of difficult situations. 

PRIDE

My beautiful little girl, who I used to dress so prettily when she was younger, can be a bit untidy. She’s very independent and doesn’t quite do her hair very neatly but I always try to instill in them both a sense of pride when it comes to wearing their school uniform. Teaching them to be proud of their school uniform, their scout uniform of even their dance uniform, helps them to feel part of a group. They’re representing that organisation and should be proud to do so. Same as the soldiers did in past wars. Seeing the Australian flag flying high at commemorative events such as ANZAC Day instills such pride in me as it should do my children. Even though I’m only a first generation (on my father’s side) and third generation (on my mother’s side) Australian, I was born here and extremely proud to be Australian. I’m proud that people were willing to die for my country so that I could live in freedom today. They may only be symbols but my kids need to know that sense of pride those people had in representing their country in wars. There are still people in parts of the world who honour Australians for the sacrifice they made in helping save their towns and countries. 

HONOUR

This I believe is probably one of the biggest lessons I need to teach my children and one that they should never forget. To have respect for those people who served in those wars. There’s not many of them left from World War II and they might just be old men and women in the street. You wouldn’t know. But it’s respect for all people from all walks of life. It’s respect for yourself. It’s honouring your parents, respecting your teachers and other people in authority. Everyone has a story and you don’t know what they’ve been through. My children need to realise that there’s a whole big world out there, full of people from all walks of life and my children are just a small part of it. As they’re getting older, they’re starting to feel entitled and so self righteous. They don’t know how to back down from an argument. I want them to be assertive but thinking that their opinion is the only opinion is wrong. They need to know that those people who went before them were honourable, they did what they were told, without questioning authority and held their country, flag, people in authority and their parents in the highest regard. 

I’m sure my kids will ‘get it’ but I won’t sit by and watch my son giggle at something as somber as an ANZAC Day ceremony. I’m not going to chastise him but talk to him, at his level about the men and women of Australia who were brave, who were honourable and who are proud to be Australian.