I sure hope that this was a FUN challenge!!! I mean, isn’t that the whole idea behind using a sense of humor in parenting?
Since technically you had two weeks to spend on this, I hope that all you overly serious mamas like me had a chance to lighten up a bit. I have to admit, I worked hard on this one.
I took this time to re-read Playful Parenting by Larry Cohen and it reinvigorated my lighter, “fun mommy” side. When you really take a good hard look at your day as a mama, it is easy to see why we lose our sense of humor. There is just do darn much to do and the load we carry is large. Taking the time to enjoy our children in the moment is critical but often times tough.
Parenting from a playful approach does make it a lot easier to find and enjoy the lighter side of parenting. Tiny is awfully serious which is a shame for a toddler. I recognize that her seriousness come from my seriousness. When I lightened up these past few weeks, she lightened up. She laughed a lot, giggled at nothing, gave me more hugs, snuggles and cuddled more, and just seemed happier. It doesn’t take much to throw a smile her way, find something to laugh over, and to seek out funny parts of our day.
I am definitely going to keep the momentum going with this. When I catch myself being overly serious of getting bogged down in my down, I will make the conscious effort to step back and get into the fun mommy zone. Can I be light hearted all of the time? No way – it is not who I am. But I can sure lighten up more often.
Now, I am going to skip over the actual 15th challenge in Carrie’s original series because it is VERY much a challenge based on a more in depth understanding of and alignment with Waldorf/Rudolph Steiner and child development. We WILL tackle it however, I am saving it for the last challenge so that I can present some information prior to the challenge to help you better understand it. It is a very valuable challenge but I want to make sure you have all of the tools you will need to tackle it.
Therefore, we are skipping ahead to the next challenge but I am keeping this in numerical order. Therefore, my numbering will no longer match Carrie’s numbering. We will be one behind.
Challenge #15 focuses on Guiding A Child.
As always, you can find Carrie’s original post here.
This is a REALLY great challenge. REALLY great. I suspect that most of us are failing this one currently. Maybe not all the time, but some of the time.
From Carrie: “In Waldorf parenting and education, we see a small child under the age of 7 as being in their BODIES. We do not ‘ask’ them to do tasks and expect them to follow through. We enter daily work through rhythm, through music and verses and singing, through doing things together and through fantasy and the imagination. If we have to use words, we may use ‘You may’ as a stock phrase along with physically helping the child at the same time.”
Carrie threw down this challenge and I will ask the same of you. Grab a small notebook and pen and WRITE DOWN, without judging yourself, what you ask your small child to do. Commands, requests, etc. How many times do you ask your child the same thing before it happens? How many times a day are you requesting things verbally?
At the end of the day, sit down with your list and see if you can brainstorm ways to approach these situations differently. I am curious to see what you all come up with.
Good luck,
Jennifer
