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Who is in the lead?
By sandi | September 2, 2005
I have been thinking about how often I make sure that my children are directing their own creative childhoods. How often do I allow them to lead in their lives? or do I bring them along while I am living my life?
Now in saying this, you must understand that I also do plenty of things where I am running the show. Children are not able to put themselves to bed before they overtire. Children are not capable of making good food choices. (Although, often mine do 
) Children are not capable of knowing whether or not something is going to hurt them. In all of these cases I do lead my children. I must! As their mother I must foster this creative being within while keeping the body whole and safe. (Somedays not an easy task.)
Of course, I have to run errands but, even when I am out on those errands I try to make them as interactive and interesting for my girls as possible. I try to engage them while driving with their silly music. I hope that in doing these things I am giving them a strong foundation to seek out things in the world.
When my girls want to stop and swing, weather and Maddie permitting, I do. When we are at home I stop what I am doing to read them a book or build a block tower. These are the things they will rememeber when they are grown. (Actually, they are more likely to remember if you don’t do it, but still.) I try to allow them to lead any actvity we are doing.
Just the other day we were painting. Annie was not using the paint exactly correctly, and it was making a mess but, still I allowed her to experiment. In my mind, messes can be cleaned and this learning that she has discovered is worth so much more to me. In the end Annie created the masterpiece that she wanted.
So I ask you, do you lead all the time? Or do you allow your children to show you a thing or two?
Topics: General Baby News | 1 Comment »
September 30th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
I wanna be like you when I grow up to be a mommy! You are the woman! I too often find my children tagging along through my life, regretably. Thanks for providing some more food for thought.