My Parenting Skills
I feel I am in a time warp when I observe Dennis’ granddaughters’ approach to their infant children. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just so foreign to me. There was a post on Facebook yesterday that got stuck in my brain and sprang to the forefront this morning. The post was photos of taking an 8 month and a three year old to the Mavericks hockey game. I cannot fathom what the noise level would be for tiny ears. I cannot imagine the physical level of energy around the wee ones. Yes, it’s wonderful that they do events as a family, but how do the little ones come down from the over stimulation? I have seen these granddaughters taking their small children out in kayaks, riding on three-wheelers. Hmm. It’s all good . . . as I don’t have to take part in the fallout of kids being exhausted beyond being reasonable, not acknowledging when the snacking is done and it’s time for a sit down meal.
Now, in my day . . . Orlin and I were about setting schedules for Carrie and Kevin that would set a timetable in their minds for rest, for meal times and such that would carry them through from infancy and going forward. Perhaps pretty fuddy-duddy. What did we know! All I can say is we tried our best. Maybe times have changes and I was standing behind the door when it happened.
So . . . what might you say brought on this train of thought this morning. I have no idea. I was busy cleaning the dirtiest corner of our house this morning when all this “over thinking” flooded in. The corner that needed some serious cleaning was where the cold air returns are in the corner of our living room. It is the corner where my home office resides along with my HP notebook. We have had the fan on within the central air unit of the home. A home full of air, lint and household dust has traveled through this part of the living room leaving some tell tale signs of an active home. Maybe I am as much of a fuddy-duddy about cleaning as I was with my parenting skills.
All I am sure of is this: my babies needed quiet and rest so that interacting in the world could be done on as fair of a playing field as possible. Oh my gosh, to have some of those wonderful quiet days back again when a blanket on the green lush grass of a fall day opened up a wealth of experiences for my wee ones, all the while having the family dog adding to the day while the kids shared their crackers with it.