For all of us who are blessed to be around a young child frequently, there is an immense amount of insight to take away from them as a daily occurrence. SO thinking back on my almost 4 years of moming and the insight little Jack has offered, I am going to share some of my favorites.
1 . There is a space between a conversation and an argument and its called “talking hard” – Jack lets me know when his father and I are now….”talking hard” and he will interrupt and say “why you talking hard?” — honestly at first it took me off guard and I laughed and had to admit that….his new term hit the nail on the head. I have done less “talking hard” and have been much more mindful to try to just let these conversations go —which has been a blessing to all the relationships in our family
2. “Mom will you play with me?” Play is always the number one thing on his mind. Whether tractors, t-rexes, play-dough, trains, he is in constant play mode and wanting a partner to do it. He is persistent and asks for what he wants. Let me reiterate this….he asks for what he wants-directly. If I say not right now, he comes back to it in 10 minutes with the same amount of zest. 9/10 he gets someone to play with. We could all learn alot about ASKING directly and then accepting “no” sometimes without losing our zest for what we want!
3. Feeling emotions (sometimes naming them) and showing them. Now we all probably don’t want to burst into tears when we don’t get what we want. However most of us by adult age (Or at least myself) have learned to stifle certain emotions. Emotions of sadness, frustration, anger, many times we don’t even register…and we wonder why we don’t sleep well, or have anxiety. Jack has no trouble saying, I am mad because of this. Or that makes me nervous. Connecting and experiencing our emotions instead of avoiding them.
4. Lasty for today, is FUN with your favorites! It’s all about fun! What do I want to do right now? How do I keep fun in my daily or hourly experience. Whether it’s in the car – “I want to listen to my favorite song.” To going to bed, and wanting to sleep with a tractor, to just loving and being happy with so many small experiences. Remember your childhood, I would bet you had some favorites that were the most “fun” that now you think back and say…what about that was so great? There was a dive restaurant my parents would take me to that if we went to that restaurant it was like the greatest day ever. Now as an adult, I am not sure what it was that made that place so great…but it was to me as a kid. Going back to that feeling of small things being BIG fun! It’s good for your soul!
Learn from littles around you, or seek out more experiences with kids (mentoring etc). It’s so rewarding to not always be in a serious frame of mind.