Pasikblogan #9: Taught by a Toddler
PasikBlogan Challenge #9: Taught by a Toddler. Blog about what you've learned from toddlers.
I can relate to this challenge! I know that having a toddler has taught me a lot of things but it's good to sit down and really ponder about what those lessons are. Here are some of the lessons I learned from Neil.=)
Don't rush, don't worry. As a first time parent, I used to always check developmental milestones to see if Neil is keeping up. I used to worry if he seems behind and if he's ahead, that used to assuage my fears as well. I've graduated from that. Worrying takes away the joy of the present. And how many times have I been proven wrong when Neil suddenly does or learns something new? Now I let things unfold in their own time. He'll do things when he's ready, things will happen when they are supposed to.
Things are just things. We know that people are more important than things, no contest. But how consistently are we living this belief? A toddler can wreck things here are there. Neil has torn book pages, broke the TV antenna twice, bent the flash drive USB connector (not it's unusable), disassembled pens, dropped phones, etc. He gets disciplined not because we care for the stuff, but because we love him. At the end of the day, things are just things. They are replaceable and they are incomparably less important than this boy we have been entrusted with.
Learn continuously. As adults, we can get sucked into constancy in our daily lives and maybe experience a stretch of days where we don't learn something new. For toddlers, learning is their "thing." I am amazed at how fast Neil picks up information (TV ads contest, anyone?) or how adept he can get at cellphone games. He likes reading so he has quite a number of books. We buy toys that he will enjoy and learn from and take him to weekly classes. We spend time and money for our kids to learn, we should do the same for ourselves as well.
Single-tasking. Nowadays, multitaskers are lauded. We are impressed with people who can do many things at once. But recent studies revealed that multitasking is not really helpful. It just makes us busier, not necessarily more productive. Toddlers are experts at single-tasking. When Neil is reading or playing, he doesn't budge even if I call name. I have to do something dramatic to get his attention. I need that kind of single-minded focus, especially at work...
Dami pa! To sum this up, it's all about patience, focus and priorities, having alignment between what we believe and how we act, and appreciating our lives while continuing to enrich it. =)
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I can relate to this challenge! I know that having a toddler has taught me a lot of things but it's good to sit down and really ponder about what those lessons are. Here are some of the lessons I learned from Neil.=)
Don't rush, don't worry. As a first time parent, I used to always check developmental milestones to see if Neil is keeping up. I used to worry if he seems behind and if he's ahead, that used to assuage my fears as well. I've graduated from that. Worrying takes away the joy of the present. And how many times have I been proven wrong when Neil suddenly does or learns something new? Now I let things unfold in their own time. He'll do things when he's ready, things will happen when they are supposed to.
Things are just things. We know that people are more important than things, no contest. But how consistently are we living this belief? A toddler can wreck things here are there. Neil has torn book pages, broke the TV antenna twice, bent the flash drive USB connector (not it's unusable), disassembled pens, dropped phones, etc. He gets disciplined not because we care for the stuff, but because we love him. At the end of the day, things are just things. They are replaceable and they are incomparably less important than this boy we have been entrusted with.
Learn continuously. As adults, we can get sucked into constancy in our daily lives and maybe experience a stretch of days where we don't learn something new. For toddlers, learning is their "thing." I am amazed at how fast Neil picks up information (TV ads contest, anyone?) or how adept he can get at cellphone games. He likes reading so he has quite a number of books. We buy toys that he will enjoy and learn from and take him to weekly classes. We spend time and money for our kids to learn, we should do the same for ourselves as well.
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| Reading while... :) |
Single-tasking. Nowadays, multitaskers are lauded. We are impressed with people who can do many things at once. But recent studies revealed that multitasking is not really helpful. It just makes us busier, not necessarily more productive. Toddlers are experts at single-tasking. When Neil is reading or playing, he doesn't budge even if I call name. I have to do something dramatic to get his attention. I need that kind of single-minded focus, especially at work...
Dami pa! To sum this up, it's all about patience, focus and priorities, having alignment between what we believe and how we act, and appreciating our lives while continuing to enrich it. =)
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Worrying takes away the joy of the present. >> amen! And we get to learn this from kids who are always "here and now". ;-)
ReplyDeleteHi Dee, Thanks for bullet 4 - I always have struggled with multitasking. It makes me dizzy, disoriented, and inaccurate. I didn't want to say that out loud because at the Great Place to Work, that seemed to be the norm... (hehe)...
ReplyDelete@Edwin, yep. They're always in the present, no baggage from the past, no worries about the future.=)
ReplyDelete@Karyn, multitasking is overrated gyud. I followed your new blog with German instructions. Success!