In the heart of those we raise we are everything. Everything and beyond. We are the most precious, loved, hero like human being in their eyes. They learn above and beyond with and from us. They copy things we do and translate it into their own ways.
I see how all that I do however mundane it may be, my daughter is mimicking it with her personal touch of her own magical imagination. Truly something fascinating to witness. For example, she loves to observe me apply on my makeup — and basically anything my husband and I do she’s very attentive to details — she has this new obsession with my nail polish which she associated as cosmetics. Smarty pants ! She translated applying makeup with putting the nail polish bottles on my face ( obviously tightly sealed for her safety — and mine too )
I was sitting on the bedroom floor and trusted her with her intentions as she reached for my eyes with the side of the bottle in which the colours is shown. Of course at time I need to remind her to be soft and gentle as she gets excited she sometimes bang the polish quite hardly on my nose, OUCH ! I gently reminded her to be soft and she continued, allowing her imagination to run freely as she kept changing colours. What a fun bonding game I thought. It has become almost a daily activity of us.
Along with our nightly routine she is now participating more and more. For instance, while I change the water to the humidifier I put the plastic top cover piece on the shelve where she can reach and as the days went by she picked it up to come join me in the bathroom waiting for me to finish filling it with water to put the piece on top of the base. What a joy !
I think one of the hardest task as parents is to trust our children. Wether it is regarding them exploring, taking their first steps or most recently in our case… My daughter has a new fascination with stairs which I must say I find it hard to “let go” and let her discover her abilities.
How to balance safety and allowing her to also take a few harmless fall to learn her capabilities and surroundings ? I know I am as all mothers should be, protective to my child. I don’t want her to get hurt but it is part of growing they say. I try as best as I can to trust my instincts while allowing her to be herself.
By trusting my daughter I feel she will grow to trust her family and most importantly, herself. Needless to say a child needs more than trust from their family to thrive but I do see it as a huge stepping stone towards achieving this goal.
Beezeemum