And there are those emerging sage leaders who feel mixed about the sacrifices they make in their civic involvements:
I sacrifice my time, but I would not do anything differently. Sometimes my involvement in the community leads to recurrent 12-hour days. It can be exhausting, but it is worth it!
I feel I am sacrificing direct time with my children but believe that the trade-off of setting an important example for them with my community involvement more than compensates for this sacrifice.
Yes there is a sacrifice, but most people today need to work. In some families the mother may have a more active role taking care of the children. In ours, it is the dad who is more involved in day-to-day activities. We talk about this as a family, and my husband and girls both know they are to tell me if they need more of my time. They are proud of the work I do and volunteer or participate when they can.
The Nature of Sacrifice I: When Does It Feel Like a Sacrifice
Several clear factors have led some emerging sage leaders to view their civic engagements as more of a sacrifice than is the case with others. Among those having children, there is a strong sense that civic engagement means sacrificing home time, while those who either have no children or no longer have children living at home, the answer is very similar to senior sage leaders: sacrifice is minimal. One emerging leader even says that she and her husband were not going to have a second child in order to sustain their civic engagement—and because of her low income as a public employee. Clearly, it is hard to nurture a child while also trying to nurture a community.
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