Growing Up Savvy Posts

We are spending some much needed time with family. Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, there is something magical about the season. We slow down, relax, look back at the year and think about what we want for next year.
Miracles and angels must surely exist manifesting themselves as grandparents’ helping hands. So for this very reason, I’m a fan of this season.
Alas, life still goes on and there is still plenty of unpleasantries that are. My golden rule… Say nothing if you have nothing nice to say. I am too old to be mean and make snide remarks and for that reason I’ll always take the high road. After all, I now have to lead by example for Sophia.
Speaking of…
Sophia insisted on taking some rocks she found to bed for her nap. She kept them… Didn’t toss them and maybe the world would be a prettier place if we kept our rocks (and daggers) to ourselves instead of tossing them.
This post feels good because it is cathartic.

Oh the power of the internet, of instant gratification in the quest of information. I recently came upon this article and realized that surely I am not alone in the way I think about parenting and childhood. I admit that I am not an early childhood educator, but as this article points out … nurture cannot trample nature and thus, early childhood educators will not be able to alter a child’s innate nature.

I like to jest that my house is like a miniature version of Toys R Us. In reality, we have lots of toys but not any more than any other average american house. The difference is that I didn’t have even a tenth of these toys growing up and turned out just fine. My mother-in-law says that Evan and his sister had even more toys … and I sometimes ask myself whether I am doing enough. On the other hand, I worry about spoiling Sophia and raising her to believe she should always have everything and everything should be taken care of for her. Toys, education, activities are all privileges and not rights.

I notice that many children do not know how to play on their own and self-occupy. Activities galore, heavy schoolbags, after-school programs and what you have are tired, grumpy children who almost never play outside and have no idea how to play on their own.

I am not saying that my style (free range parenting) is the right way, but it certainly reinforces that involvement is necessary just in moderation.

The year is coming to an end and sometimes we can’t stop but look back on own accomplishments introspectively. I find that it helps to see what were some of my own successes and more importantly, my failures. I always make a promise to admit my shortcomings, but no regrets because I can’t change the past.

My biggest regret has been not placing trust into people who I had no reason to doubt. I realize now that it wasn’t about trusting them, it was more about letting myself trust someone else. Realizing this very fact was my aha moment. I needed to grow as a person and as a mom.

My biggest accomplishment was keeping the household running. I shouldn’t claim this as my accomplishment because it really took the three of us. We each had a special role. I am the planner, Evan is my partner in crime and Sophia made sure we didn’t take ourselves and our life too seriously by messing up our plans once in a while.

Other things that I am proud of include the persistence with sharing our lives on this blog. I can say that I do it because I don’t like to quit, but really I think that this is an interesting journal for Sophia to read and see what we were both like when we were young and she was little. I don’t like to quit and I don’t have much respect for those who do unless there is a worthwhile reason.

Like most others when one thing comes to an end, we look forward to what’s next. I’m looking forward to more time with family, a bigger focus on being the best person that I can be and balancing my life to ensure a happy me and thus a happy family.