milestones
Stop - and reflect
One thing we’ve learned to do is stop, and reflect.
Think through where you have been, and where you’ve come to. Look at the child with clear eyes and see what you’ve achieved. There will always be challenges – have a chat with any other mother or father of a similarly aged child and you will find they deal with many of the same issues.
The challenge is that you may have a few extra. They will range in severity. At the lower end of the scale you will find yourself wondering how much of the behaviour is due to the child’s past, and how much of it simple six year old passion. There will come a point where you consider that the child has lived with you long enough to treat the behaviour as simple six year old passion. It’s a wonderful day when you all reach that point.
At the other end you’ll wonder how to ever manage this child’s behaviour. Faced with an endless challenge, stop and reflect. You will find some milestones along the way that help you take a breath, feel some satisfaction in what you have all achieved, and soldier on.
And just occasionally, we hope you feel real joy in what you are doing. Because we do, and it’s the best feeling in the world.
We bought some new clothes for Happy Camper – jeans, a hoodie, new cute boots. Nothing too different – just bigger sizes but the styles are probably more mature. Well, suddenly she looks like a big girl. It made us stop, and reflect.
Two-thirds the way through this kindy year, there is much to be happy about: how well Happy Camper has taken to school, the excellence of her teacher (at a local, state primary school), the bonding with her school mates, Happy Camper’s joy in learning. Her ongoing good health and resilience (after a poor start) is a wonderful bonus.
And best of all is our relationship. While Happy Camper’s cheeky streak may drive us mad, we are quite delighted at the confidence and intelligence that fuels it. We let her test the boundary, we explain the limits, we let her find them, we pull her firmly into line every so often, then we ease off. It’s an ongoing process.
So what underpins it all is love. When you hold this child in your arms and feel your heart turn over, you stop, and reflect. We love every fibre of Happy Camper’s sassy, gorgeous, healthy being. And she knows when she reaches for us she finds love. That will keep us all going.
Posted by EssentialMum
Think through where you have been, and where you’ve come to. Look at the child with clear eyes and see what you’ve achieved. There will always be challenges – have a chat with any other mother or father of a similarly aged child and you will find they deal with many of the same issues.
The challenge is that you may have a few extra. They will range in severity. At the lower end of the scale you will find yourself wondering how much of the behaviour is due to the child’s past, and how much of it simple six year old passion. There will come a point where you consider that the child has lived with you long enough to treat the behaviour as simple six year old passion. It’s a wonderful day when you all reach that point.
At the other end you’ll wonder how to ever manage this child’s behaviour. Faced with an endless challenge, stop and reflect. You will find some milestones along the way that help you take a breath, feel some satisfaction in what you have all achieved, and soldier on.
And just occasionally, we hope you feel real joy in what you are doing. Because we do, and it’s the best feeling in the world.
We bought some new clothes for Happy Camper – jeans, a hoodie, new cute boots. Nothing too different – just bigger sizes but the styles are probably more mature. Well, suddenly she looks like a big girl. It made us stop, and reflect.
Two-thirds the way through this kindy year, there is much to be happy about: how well Happy Camper has taken to school, the excellence of her teacher (at a local, state primary school), the bonding with her school mates, Happy Camper’s joy in learning. Her ongoing good health and resilience (after a poor start) is a wonderful bonus.
And best of all is our relationship. While Happy Camper’s cheeky streak may drive us mad, we are quite delighted at the confidence and intelligence that fuels it. We let her test the boundary, we explain the limits, we let her find them, we pull her firmly into line every so often, then we ease off. It’s an ongoing process.
So what underpins it all is love. When you hold this child in your arms and feel your heart turn over, you stop, and reflect. We love every fibre of Happy Camper’s sassy, gorgeous, healthy being. And she knows when she reaches for us she finds love. That will keep us all going.
Posted by EssentialMum
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