More Unsolicited Advice for Parents

My eldest is nearly 3. She is no longer a baby, no longer a toddler. I know, reminiscent of "not yet a girl, not yet a woman." But that is not the point.



I am now at a stage in motherhood where I am riddled with regret. Racing through my head are the constant thoughts of - "I weaned her too early.", "I potty trained her too young.","I was too high strung." "I should have been more relaxed, more patient, kinder, funnier, more active, more interesting" ladidadida ... Honestly ... self-inflicted but those feelings are there and they are very very real.

After braiding her lovely hair, I sat to organize her (and my) schedule for this next year and as I put pen to paper, filling in a weekly calendar, it became evident that my time "at home" with her is coming to an end too quickly for my liking. Between pre-school, music, ballet, swimming and Spanish, the spontaneous days of random trips through town are ending. Her life will soon be very structured. I wont be able to randomly take her to the zoo when she should be in pre-school. She won't be able to crawl to the bathroom watching out for crocodiles because schools just don't allow that sort of behavior.

It has hit me that life gets quite serious rather quickly and early on in life - schedules, schools, rules, responsibilities, places to be, things to do. Life lays it on quite thick.

And so now, understanding that her freedom and spontaneous nature will soon be restrained, I take it easy. This is where the unsolicited advice comes in. As parents, we enforce tons of rules for nap-time, play-time, lunch-time, but sometimes we should just take it easy. It is ok to the bend the rules occasionally, have fun and do something different, silly or outrageous. The years of make-believe and spontaneity are limited. Let them have some fun.