I read this article by NGJ ministries. Now while it is Christian based, I think the message is the same to every parent or grandparent.
I share the article on my blog and wrote a bit about how it woke me up, so if your interested in reading it you can find it right here:
http://domanandaba.blogspot.com/2012/03/be-door-opener-not-door-shutter-no.html
There is a link at the top of this blog entry that will take you right to the article.
Great article, Waterdreamer! Thanks for sharing it!
Beautiful article. I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for sharing.
Seriously, I got moved by this article. Thanks for posting it here.
Oh, Waterdreamer! What a find, and so helpful…those moments that you cannot get back…
The article has really made me take a deeper look…two incidences today stand out as an illustration of the difference!
This morning, as A and I were getting out of the shower (she is 2!), she decided that she would, for lack of a polite euphemism, pinch my nipple with every ounce of strength she could muster! As this is not nearly the first time, nor the 2Oth, my first thought was to shout! Instead, I took a deep breath and calmly (at least visibly lol ) asked her why she did that,
She thought for a second…and said, “mammals have nipples to give milk to their babies!”. I was so shocked and thrilled that I almost missed the point…if I had shouted, either that connection or my acknowledgment/ reinforcement of that concept might have been lost!
Later, we were playing the worlds most ANNOYING math app that she adores, that has a section for connecting sequential numbers to make familiar shapes…like, connect the dots to make a moon, but child has to find the lowest number on the page, then count on to connect the dots…great fun…the problem is, if you don’t hit the next number in the sequence, an extremely annoying voice says, "that’s, NOT the right answer! Ad nauseum…I Swear, she definitely knows the electronic repitition tweaks every last nerve in my body!
And yet, a quiet (whispering, barely!) voice in my head said, "oh! She is two! Cause and Effect! She is learning that no matter how many times (even seemingly a million!) times she tries it, the numbers are always constant! Genius!
Now, if I could only find those earplugs and my bottle of infinite patience!
Thanks, Waterdreamer for the great article!