I never put myself in the "worried mom" category. There was the helicopter mom who worried about EVERything, the carefree mom who worried about nothing and then there was me. Whatever category you find yourself in maybe you have your own category, if you're a mom, you worry about something at some point am I right?
I didn't know I would be the type of mom who worried about anything until I had kids and even more so until Asher turned 3 then all of a sudden I was the "I'm so behind" mom, the "I'm never doing enough" mom. Now, quite honestly I don't care about putting my kids in violin lessons at 2 or fancy pants preschool by 3 and if you are that mom then pop rocks to you, but here I find myself worried my 3 year old isn't learning enough life skills or prepping for preschool or should he be in preschool already? Should I be more intentional with developing certain skills in him like violin lessons so he can be a world-renowned violinist? (I don't even like the violin)
I feel like the world's most lazy mom letting them watch tv for a couple hours in the morning. And yes I realize that part is for a season. We'll move into our house soon and new routines will come but I just thought we could chat one mama to another about WHAT should we be doing with our 3 year olds?!?
>>> Enter.... the Powerade bottle <<<
We were at the pool and Asher brought his juice with him. We're swimming around and I tell him to drink it by the table not to spill it, yada yada but of course he doesn't listen to the drink it by the table part. Then a light bulb comes on. I am NO teacher type AT ALL, it doesn't come natural to me. I don't look at everything and see a lesson. But I saw him playing with the bottle, filling it with water and I realized I AM teaching him. I've BEEN teaching him and we moms put too much pressure on ourselves to raise great kids. Yes it is a great responsibility, but > as moms it's not our job to do it all. < We started talking about air in the bottle making it float even the slightest air bubble will prevent it from sinking, we're putting the cap on under the water so no air bubbles can get in, he's experimenting and he played with that bottle for over an HOUR. He even found the courage to take his life jacket off so he could throw the bottle and go get it. He was learning, he was having fun and he was being brave.
I believe there's value in preschool or homeschool or preparation for school but what we don't give ourselves enough credit for is that we're ALREADY teaching our kids in the midst of real life. We don't always have to sit down and teach a lesson. If you enjoy that or if that comes natural to you then I love it but what about us moms who don't have that natural gene to teach a lesson? I had so much fun teaching him about water and air and floating, and he had so much fun learning while still being his goofy, active self.
>>> He's going to learn from me, from dad, from siblings, from friends, from the world around him and it's my job as his mom to love him and guide him and point him to truth as we walk through life together. Let me tell you, that weight of worry was lifted in the pool that afternoon and I feel so much more carefree about parenting him. <<<
Until my 2 year old starts asking questions about the world (wink wink). . .
No comments:
Post a Comment