Hannah is somewhere between 20 and 21 months old now. For the past couple of weeks, I have been musing over the ups and downs we faced as her parents.
We are almost through with level 1 of the parenting game, i.e. the baby stage. Yay :D Looking back, I think we have obtained a decent report card. In a few months’ time we would be entering level 2 where the ‘terrible two’ might show its ugly face.
I observe that patience is necessary for successful parenting. Ever since Hannah started to make sense of her surroundings, teaching her good habits and manners put my patience to the test. Babies (and anybody for that matter) need time to learn new skills and form good habits. Giving Hannah time and space to learn to pick up her toys and return them to their proper place and reminding her to do same thing over and over again = patience. And I strongly believe that being patient towards a person is impossible if there is no love for that person. If we love our girl and want the best for her, we would be patient and give her time to acquire a new habit. It would be unfair to expect her to understand us immediately, learn a new skill and repeat it. As a side, I observed that our girl learned faster when either one of us did the activity with her.
Although we have a relatively easy baby to care for, life with her is not without its challenges. It can be so trying just to be patient in our modern day context where we are so used to having things happen instantaneously! I tried waiting like forever for our girl to understand my instruction to pick up her water bottle to drink water, to put away her legs from kicking mommy, to stop playing with the drawers, to stop protesting having her soiled diaper changed, etc etc.
It is a good thing to have the husband to take over whenever my patience is wearing thin for the day. Two is better than one. :)
You’re right in that patience is probably among the best qualities to possess as a parent. With my son Garrett it was the stage when he was three that really got to us. I don’t expect you’ll notice the transition if there even is one. There are good days and bad days . . . just maybe more bad days than you’re used to. At any rate it’s nothing so severe to warrant dreading its potential arrival. Look at it as an opportunity to instill corrective behavior and reinforce good habits!
Hannah looks adorable in that outfit! I haven’t seen her decked out in that color often.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for sharing your parenting experiences. Good days and bad days – I could remember that. :) And seeing every challenge as an opportunity for the better – will try to keep that in mind especially when I’m mad at her, hee hee.