You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. – Franklin P. Jones
This statement is especially true when it comes to toddlers, isn’t it?
Patience is actually the solution to most of our situations. As parents, we must learn to be more patient because well, they are toddlers, they are supposed to be running all over the place, touching everything, trying to do what we do and more and more. That is what toddlers do! Let’s explore some of this in more detail.
Apart from patience, it is how we look at a situation. As mentioned above, they touch everything – in actuality, they are exploring their environment. They are trying to take in and understand what they are looking at, what the things surrounding them are. So rather than us taking something away from them, we could try telling them what that is and it’s functionality.
Running all over the place – these adorable little humans are full of energy which the need to exhaust. It is extremely important that we offer them ways to do this – outdoor play, cycling, climbing things in the play area. Most important here is to let them do it themselves. Yes you need to be around, close enough to catch them it if will be a big fall but do not hold them and make them climb – you are limiting their development.
Trying to do what we do – And they do it pretty well! Yes, toddlers mimic what they see adults around them do. It is their way of learning; hence, it is very important that we model good and appropriate behaviour around them. We behave and talk how we would want our Munchkin to do – this becomes the best and easiest way to teach them manners and build their personality.
Before we teach our Munchkins, we need to learn ourselves. We need to learn to let our children be, let them try to do things on their own – try to dress themselves up, eat on their own, fill a glass of water for themselves, cut their own fruit, make their own sandwich – let them be independent. To be able to do these things we need to learn to have faith that they are capable of doing it themselves. It may take a little longer, it may make a mess, it may break a thing or two but the lessons they learn are invaluable.
Do you let your Munchkin do things themselves?