26/04/2021
At times I struggle, as a parent, to stay in the moment and patient with the process of my kids being kids. Being a parent can feel so non stop, inevitably I leave the present moment and find myself deep in complex thought.
A few months ago I was having one of those days, with intrusive thoughts, feeling like I needed to solve some big issues in my life.
My 2 year old son started to wash his hands and giggled. I felt an urge to get to the kitchen to tend to dinner, and also an invitation to truly appreciate that moment.
I'll be honest, I could see the opportunity but it was hard to embody. I appreciated my son's joy but didn't join in it as deeply as he was. Still, my mood shifted. I thought about all the times, that day, my son had already played with water. He'd been in the tub while I took a shower, he helped me wash dishes, he'd played on his own in the kitchen sink, and here we were, in the bathroom, and the simple joy of water flowing over his hand was still novel to him.
I tried to really remember that moment. To remember that joy when I remind my kids something for the 1,000th time; that their experiences are so different than my own. Their perspectives are so relative to their present state. The way they take in information is very immersive.
This meme fits that lesson, so well.
"If you have told a child a thousand times and they still do not understand, then it is not the child who is the slow learner." Walter Barbie