Why ROP Now?? …for your 10-11.5 year old…

by Alison DeLong

Why do we do this ceremony now, BEFORE the well known coming of age years for teens?

What’s so important about this age of middle childhood & honoring your 10 & 11 year olds with a traditional rite of passage?

Your 10 year old is in a unique moment in human evolution.  In this age of child development, they are relating to the world in a new way.  You may have noticed this HUGE shift right around age 9, when their new awareness of death and mortality opens an unprecedented sensitivity and vulnerability into the capacity to FEEL.

In place of their younger self being guided by sensory exploration and safety, they now make sense of the world through TRUST.  

With this understanding of human consciousness, we are encouraged to gather with intention at this age, within this window of readiness, to support the growth of trust, especially SELF-TRUST in the face of big feelings and other challenges that bring them to their edge of comfort.  

Rites of Passage, done well, allow youth to take a quantum leap in neurological, biological and spiritual development within their field of knowing, in this case TRUST.  You may have noticed that this support for youth and their EMOTIONAL WISDOM is missed in our culture.  

Can you imagine the world we can create if every Feeling Being is met with this support as our youth self-organize toward greater and greater complexity of humanness? 

We will spend 3 hours together during our weekend focusing on this imagining: how do we parents nourish our 10 and 11 year olds to support their unfolding wellbeing?

In my experience, Rites of Passage in middle childhood is a key component to raising healthy families and teens that are ready for new growth towards autonomy and personal freedom because they have the foundations of self-trust and emotional wisdom.