Category Archives: childhood joy

Nine parenting Lessons Re-Learned: A Weekend of Grandbaby-sitting

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  1. Not my home, but a similar mess 🙂

    Losing the tv remote can be a good thing. (Really, we didn’t fake it.) The morning was more creative, less argumentative, and they “forgot” to have the morning snack they usually think they need.

  2. Kids love, and need, to be needed. With a freezing cold day ahead, and all 3 kids sniffling (ages 6, 4 1/2 and 3, in case you were wondering), I declared the “activity” of the day would be laundry. The littler ones fought for the right to fold the kitchen towels…and they figured out stuff to do when they weren’t “helping.” Also told the 3yo (boy) what fun it would be to take a paper towel and get on the floor and make all the water drops disappear. Child labor. Don’t tell my daughter.
  3. What a gift to have siblings. See corollary.
  4. Corollary: sometimes it’s best to separate said siblings and tell them they are not allowed to play together until they figure it out. Do not become a referee except to call time out – from each other.
  5. Not everything has to be recorded on the smart phone. Record it in your mind. Savor the fashion show (the older 2 are girls, not that that matters to a fashion show but you might have been wondering), the puppet show, reading in the teepee. Stay in the moment and savor, savor, savor- for this too shall pass and the next one may be the blood-curdling scream the youngest emits when overwhelmed.
  6. If possible, have a partner who will babysit with you. When I was a single parent, one of the hardest things was having no one to turn to when the kids were being awesomely cute…or when they weren’t. Or when they needed to be in separate places with separate adults. So grateful for my husband right now
  7. Getting outdoors, even for ten minutes, can be a game-changer. See lesson six. Very rare that all three want to go outside at the same time.
  8. Make sure you have 2 Aleve left in the bottle for when you go home.
  9. Notice what fantastic parents those three kids have, Count your blessings.
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Art: Creating for the Non-Artist

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Word of the month for March:

Art.

Why?

Because I’m not an artist – at least, not a visual one.

Why do it, then?

Three reasons:

  • It can be fun.
  • It reaches another part of the brain
  • Hey, ya never know. Maybe you are a visual artist of sorts.

We all have our “gifts” – you know, the interests and abilities that  come to us easily, almost as if the universe is calling us to them.

painted field

Eviana Asked me to Draw This

For some of us, we see our purpose in the gifts that seem to have been there from birth. These mysterious talents (“I don’t know, I just started playing piano at age three and my parents couldn’t keep me away from it”) define us almost from the get-go. And well they should, in many cases.

But – what if we’ve let this definition of “who we are” cage us in too much? What can we gain if we just try some other things, letting go of having to be “good at it”? What if we open the door to another room and just live there for awhile and see what happens?

My word for March is “Art” because I want to see and feel what happens in the room.

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Dear Evi: Wishing You Simple Childhood Joys

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Dearest grandbaby Eviana –

Simple Toys bring Best Joys

Simple Toys bring Best Joys

New Year’s Eve Day has forever gained a new meaning, leaving things like resolutions in the dust of a much more important focus: your birthday.

This year, you will be one whole year old on December 31, and you’ve already changed the world. Well – ours, at least. Your joy, your love, your needs, your snarky sense of fun and play…what an amazing person you already are!

And of course all other parents and grandparents feel the same about their babies. And so it goes, quite beautifully. But watching you grow in this past year has opened the window even wider to some nostalgia for a simpler time – and I hope, as your Grammy, to be a part of making sure these joys are part of your life.

A few truths you have reminded me of:

  • People need to play. It’s what you do all day, and something we all need to fit into our lives.
  • People love to learn. It’s not a “chore”, it’s a privilege. I see your face light up whenever you learn something new.
  • It’s fun to laugh. And your laughter has sparked so many laughs in me. I’ve missed that!
  • People want to connect. Differences disappear on the playground. As long as someone else (child or caregiver) is considerate, kind, and caring, there is no color or clothing that can be judged. We need each other. Love does indeed trump divisiveness.

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