Welcome to Fall!
It's official, it has arrived. Fall has always been my favourite season. As a little girl, I loved the back-to-school excitement that came with fall. As a teen, I loved the back-to-school shopping that came with back-to-school, that came with fall. As a university student, I loved the cool weather that somehow necessitated unecessary back-to-school shopping, that came with back-to-school, that came with fall. Now as a mum, I love... not having to slip and slop a bottle of sunscreen on my wriggly toddler every time we leave the house. Oh! and Pumpkin Spice Lattes (controversial colouring and all... since I'm pretty sure the insane amount of sugar will kill me first).
It's the simple things.
This fall, while enjoying the simple things, I'm making sure to not ignore the complex. I find the more time I spend with K, the more I realize how overwhelming the complex things in life can be for our little guys. Just this morning, after noticing that there were more food particles on the floor than on our breakfast plates, I busted out the broom and dustpan. K and I went to town for about 10 minutes, sweeping, scooping, spilling, sweeping, scooping, spilling, sweeping... Hey! Where are you going with the dustpan you little wiener? We weren't very efficient, but we had fun. When K had moved on to bigger and better things, I decided to grab the vacuum out of the closet and make an honest attempt at floor hygiene. I turned it on VRROOOMM, K took off. Nervously peeking out from around the corner I could see that while he was interested, he was clearly overwhelmed. Two things came to mind: 1) It does seem like an unnecessary amount of noise to accomplish the same task as the gentle swish, swish of the broom and 2) I really need to vacuum more.
While vacuums and brooms share a similar goal, there are times when one just makes more sense than the other. For instance, sweeping the shag carpet under our dining table just doesn't fly (don't even get D started on the fact that we have a shag carpet under our table). Recognizing that I had encountered a teachable moment, I shut off the vacuum and coaxed K out of his room (I may or may not have bribed him with a cookie). First, I let him play with the cord, and then the little clips on the dirt canister, and then finally I showed him the on/off switch (he loves switches more than cookies). He flicked it on... VRROOOOMM but this time he didn't run away, he looked up at me and smiled (such a smug little grin). Then he proceeded to turn it off and on and off and on, fifty-two million times. I was proud of K and I was proud of me. I could've just continued vacuuming, leaving him to cower in the door way and/or retreat into the safety of his bedroom, or I could've shut er' down and called it day (surely I'll have some K-free time sometime in the next few months.. right?). But I didn't. I chose the teachable path (and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a 2 year old vacuuming prodigy out of it.. fingers crossed haha).
But in all seriousness, the complex things in life can be noisy and fast, and sometimes just downright scary. While there may be slower, quieter, safer-seeming alternatives, it's our job as parents to equip our little guys with the skills needed to forge through the world with confidence. We need to not only recognize these complex moments, objects, relationships, and events, but demonstrate how to break them down into approachable, achievable pieces so that in life our little people will be able to do the same. Today may have just been the simple battle of dirt vs. man, but tomorrow it could be interacting with a bully on the playground, in ten years it could be navigating public transit alone, in twenty years it could negotiating world peace. The thing is, we don't know where life will take our kids. What we do know is that, while we won't be with them all the way, we are with them now. So while you enjoy those simple things, make sure to also make the most of those fleeting (teacheable) moments fellow mums (and dads).
Until next time my friends,
-A
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| K and the Shark |
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