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‘Live your life thinking any moment, something magical is about to happen’
Then my alarm clock goes off and real life starts to happen.
I recently read a blog about a woman with Type A personality that decided to stop telling her 4 year old daughter ‘Hurry up’. The reason being that her daughter like to take her time doing things. The mother couldn’t understand why the daughter wanted to stop and smell the roses. So one day, Mom has an epiphany and ‘wham’ no more ‘hurry up’ in her vocabulary. Her daughter was a ‘noticer’ and she was going to let her ‘notice’ everything and not rush her.
Her alarm clock has yet to go off. But thankfully, mine has.
I get what this mom is saying, her daughter (and most 4 ,5,6 year olds) like to take in the world around them. Pet the dogs, feel the rain on their face and ask 60 million questions from here to the grocery store in the space of 35 minutes. We, parents, want our child to absorb the world around them, to see and understand and perhaps gain a better understanding of things then we, the adults, ever will. My child~the philosopher.
But let’s get real.
As much as I want my daughter to be better than I am (which hopefully she will be) does allowing her to take her jolly good time getting from the house to the car really give her better childhood memories and experiences? How about it’s pissing down rain and Mommy needs to get you to your doctor’s appointment in 10 minutes. You need to get your ass in the car and pontificate about the brilliance of rain later! Are we bad mothers because we force our children to be considerate of the people around us, not to mention *gasp* the mothers and fathers who are, for lack of a better term, running this show?
I guess because I do tell my daughter to ‘hurry up’ that this blog post felt insulting to me. I would love to let my daughter hear and observe everything that catches her attention. I want her to think long and deep about the world around her; to love it, to want to make it better, to understand everything.
But I really need to deposit this check before the bank closes…so let’s go!!!
I feel like this mother is trying to manufacture these magical moments with her child by simple allowing her daughter to dictate the pace of everyone else’s life.
“Oh no, we can’t hurry, Britney is trying to decide exactly what shape the clouds are making.”
C’mon now.
My child is figuring out things faster than I can teach it to her. She observes, she drinks it all in and asks plenty of questions. But she also knows that when I say ‘Let’s roll’ she moves.
But, with all this being said, Kids do need time to just check the world out. I like watching my daughter watching people. Asking about different things and giving me her reasoning on things she has seen or heard. I could listen all day to her 4 year old philosophy. But I also want to raise a child that although she may have her head in the clouds, she’s got her feet firmly on the ground. She should know that there are time schedules and appointments. Walking around with no regard to anyone else’s time is not only inconsiderate, it’s rude.
Take it all in child, but keep moving.
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