My BabyCenter newsletter popped into my email box a few days ago and I saved it as the main article seemed pretty interesting, titled “Ten Ways to Build your Child’s Self-Esteem”. I just took the time now and if you have preschool aged children, go take a read through. It’s obvious (as most self-help things are) but always nice to read it and think about what you are doing personally to help your child and what you could be doing better.
I feel I have a lot of room for improvement but as I was reading it I realized Sammie has grown so much the past year. We went down to Krysta’s house today and did a walk down to a local park (ooh, I wore the WRONG shoes for that!) and played for a bit. Some children came down after about thirty minutes and Sam looked at me and said, can I go play with them? I told her, of course! So she ran over to the basketball court where they were playing with a ball and just joined right in. I was so proud of her!
The change from side-by-side play and interactive playing seems like an awkward one but Sam has learned so much. These days when we walk into Gymboree and she sees a friend she likes, she runs up, gives them a hug, and yells “Let’s PLAY!”. Such a difference from where we would hold her hand, encourage her to talk, and be the liaison for the friendship.
Reading through the items, I feel happy to recognize times where I have done exactly as recommended. Other times though, I know I could be doing better. Yesterday I was sitting on the floor reading an awesome book while Griff was happily playing with toys. I had gone back and forth with him for a bit but he was happy so I was reading. 🙂 I could hear Sam in her room, not sleeping for quiet time, so I called her downstairs figuring it would just be better to have them both in the living room with me. As she played for awhile, she kept flitting back over to me to play, ask me a question, pretend to wash my hair and I was slightly hoping she would go back to playing so I could finish my book. After a few questions where I tried super short answers, I just looked up and realized, I can read this book any time… but answering these funny questions and playing with Sam is just priceless. I need to put down my book, my iPhone, whatever, when I’m around the kids and just have fun with them. The time goes by so quickly. And hopefully I’m raising confident sweet children in the process.
It just seems so unbelievable that we are raising these cute LITTLE people to be responsible-nice-sweet-caring BIG people. And it’s our job to do it right. With no manual. Funny, right as I was writing this post I read Emily’s post over at MOMFormation about ‘What are we teaching our kids?’. LOL – It must be the theme this week!
Every day I hear something new from Sam that I recognize I have taught her (for good, or for bad!). I adore her manners that she has and always uses out in public, even if we remind her a little bit more at home. Yesterday though, I heard her muttering ‘Holy Cannoli!’ while she was playing with her toys, haha. It cracked me up. I’ve been trying to experiment with my exclamations of surprise or annoyance lately and that was one of my recent PG tries. I need to work on those.
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