No Ordinary Brand - Karen Jewette

Branding your children doesn't mean to literally put a hot iron to your children. Branding Your Children resonated with me because that is what I believe that parents need to do-put their mark on their children so that everyone knows who their children belong to.

Branding is not a new concept-it was done in slavery. It was done to cattle. It was and is done today in marketing so that it is evident that whatever bears the brand belongs to someone. Putting your mark on your children is not to be inhumane or as a marketing ploy, we chose to brand our children so that they will be productive, constructive, competent, kind, and caring members of society.

You see, a brand is who we are. It creates a personality and a unique product. Brands serve to bring things to life and change how we view the world. So, I suppose that with our children, we have been branding them with that purpose-to change the world and how people view it through them. Again, I don't mean to literally put a hot iron to our children as cattlemen did with their livestock. I do mean that a mark, logo, or symbol should be permanently imprinted on your children so that they know who they are and if they are lost or wander off, others know to whom they belong and will return them to you.

So when the church member told me she saw our brand, I thought more about it, and she was telling me that she saw the markings or characteristics on our children that we had branded upon them that exemplified that they belonged to us.