This is something I’m learning as a parent. When our kids are little, it’s so common for us to want to help them get to the next thing and the next milestone and the next developmental stage. At least, at that point, we’re usually super excited over and happily celebrate each step, no matter how early or “late” it may happen.
But why are we in such a rush?
Why not simply enjoy THIS stage and this phase and this time for as long as it needs to be there. And then celebrate and enjoy the next when it comes?
Perhaps we feel the pressure of college coming up or having to make sure they know this by then because of what society expects.
But who decided that that was the best timeline to begin with? And why do we let that dictate how we interact with, see, and speak to our child?
What if their path is something completely different? And why do we tend to feel like that would be “wrong” or “scarier” than just going about life in the way that’s expected by others? Why do we choose to fear allowing them to develop and grow and learn in the natural ways and timing they were uniquely designed to?
Why do we tend to stop celebrating each small step and, instead, choose to fret more and more over where they’re not yet?
I’m learning to slow down a lot more, appreciate a lot more, and savor the moments that ARE rather than missing out on them by wishing the future, or future accomplishments/achievements/abilities, would arrive sooner.
What about you? How often do you feel the pressure to have your child do more, achieve more, know more, be more? Rather than basking in the joy of who and what they are right now, in this moment, faults and all?
How do you feel when someone truly LOVES and appreciates you exactly as you are, even when you know you’re not perfect, and you can feel their deep sense of confidence and belief in what they KNOW you are capable of and KNOW you are on the way to becoming, as if your “success” is an eventuality, a certainty, and 100% inevitable?
We can BE that for our children.
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