Raising kids comes with a lot of responsibility. You want to ensure you’re teaching them valuable things, you want to teach them right from wrong, you want them to have big dreams and high hopes. But at the end of the day, I think we can all agree, that we just want to raise good humans. I find myself so often giving my 5 year old mini life lessons, that make me stop and go “oh hey, that’s darn good advice. I should probably do that too…”
Let’s talk about that;
Life lesson 1: decisions
I’m very indecisive, to a fault actually. I swore I would do everything in my power to help my son be confident in his decision making. However, frequently I hear the response “I don’t know”, when I ask him simple questions and it drives me crazy. How could you not know ?! You’re the only one that does know! If you don’t decide, someone will decide for you, and you might not like that choice. So please make a decision before someone else makes it for you.
… whoa…
Life lesson 2: be in the moment
Our son really loves YouTube. Sometimes it’s a good utilization for some downtime and sometimes we are negotiating with a terrorist. It’s a fun surprise, you never know which personality you’ll get when it’s time to turn it off.
This past summer we took him for his first boat ride. He loved getting splashed by the waves, going under the bridges and seeing all of the other boats on the water. But halfway through, he asked me to watch YouTube on my phone. WHAT the WHAT ?!? Are you kidding me ?! You’re on this boat having a super fun moment of enjoying something new, how could you even think it’s ok to be staring at a screen?!?
Oh wait.. hang on.. let me post the moment onto Facebook.
Life lesson 3: stop worrying about other people…
Our son is learning the concept of sharing. Specifically the sharing of space he lives in with his brother. He’s not necessarily a tattle tell, he’s more of a let’s follow my brother around non stop to make sure he doesn’t touch my things kinda kid.
I’m constantly telling him not to worry about what his brother is doing and to go play. He’s wasting All of his time and energy when he could be doing something fun instead. Little bro is living his best life, while big bro is missing out because he’s too concerned about what someone else is doing. Sound familiar? I’ll wait, while you finish scrolling Instagram.
Life lesson 4 : just . Brush. Your. Teeth.
Ok, this one isn’t about teeth. It’s about the small simple taste that needs accomplished in order to do the next best thing. Sometimes we fight the easiest thing that takes two seconds. We drag it out because we can. There’s zero reason as to why something so simple should feel like an eternity to do. As a a parent, it’s so much easier to see the bigger picture. As a kid, it’s impossible to see 3 inches past what’s in our face. If you’re a religious person this ones for you, if you’re not, that’s ok too. But I would pause her to say, most times in life, I have a child’s mentality about the bigger picture. Sometimes I gotta just get the stuff done, because something really good might be waiting around the corner.. I’m not the one who holds the bigger picture here.
*cue choir of angels singing *
Whatever the parenting moment may be for you, I encourage you to take a step back and embrace the wisdom you’re sharing with your littles, for yourself. Enjoy the moment. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Jump in some puddles and for goodness’ sake, whatever you do, don’t eat the yellow snow.
