May 31, 2010
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Appreciating Parents and Child-Carers!
Toddler Ideas is the insightful ezine delivered to your inbox every month from clever-toddler-activities.com
May 2010 Issue 10
Featuring:
- Opening Thoughts – Gratitude!
- Cute Corner – A Mother's Love
- Tip of the Month - See Yourself With Kind Eyes :-)
- Featured Page – Remember Father's Day
- Wise Words - What Mothers Do
Opening Thoughts
Gratitude!I personally feel like parents and child-carers deserve a bit more appreciation for the huge amount of effort, love and patience we give. I mean, raising a child (or more!) is physically and emotionally exhausting, isn't it? Do you also find it amazing (and often annoying) how long it takes to do the most basic daily tasks with young children? So, thank you for giving so much of yourself for our future generation. Even if, (like me) you'd like to give more, I appreciate what you do give. :-)
Oh, but I think the little rewards they give makes it all worth it, don't you? Like watching them develop new skills and more speech, the 'head on your shoulders' cuddles and them just being their cute selves.
I hope you find the encouragement you deserve in this issue of Toddler Ideas.
Cute Corner
A Mother's LoveThere are times when only a Mother's love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappoints
And calm all of our fears.
There are times when only a Mother's love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we've dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.
There are times when only a Mother's faith
Can help us on life's way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.
For a Mother's heart and a Mother's faith
And a Mother's steadfast love
Were fashioned by the Angels
And sent from God above...
- Author Unknown
Do you have something to contribute to Cute Corner? Please use this handy contact form.
Tip of the Month
See Yourself With Kind EyesIsn't it annoying that parenting advice consists of completely opposite theories and then everything in between? It's enough to make your head spin! Then there's all the scare stories and predictions about what terrible things would happen if one was to do something one way versus another way. Plus a lot of these don't embrace the fact that every child and parent is unique. Why is it that we focus on what we shouldn't do with children?
I know I critique myself harshly, but it doesn't seem to help me improve. A while ago I read a brilliant (but hard) tip of focusing on what we do right. I feel more positive when I think about what I'm grateful for (however big or small). I've found that writing down 1-3 things I feel grateful for each day helps me realize my life is better than I previously thought.
The little post-it note on my mirror saying 'Kind Eyes' reminds me to be more compassionate first by seeing myself with kind eyes. Everything seems to flow more smoothly when I'm in a good mood!
Featured Page
Remember Father's DayCalling all mums (moms) and child-carers! Father's Day is on 20th June this year. Now's a good time start thinking about how to encourage toddlers to show appreciation for their Dads.
Would you like some inspiration? Take a look at these cute and simple Father's Day Children's Crafts!
Wise Words
What Mothers DoThis is a new series of quotes from related experts. I was inspired to share my appreciation and compassion of parents and childcarers through Toddler Ideas while reading What Mothers Do, Especially When it Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen. This is the most reassuring and true to life parenting book I have ever read. Naomi Stadlen is a qualified psychotherapist, a trained breastfeeding counsellor and a mother of three. For over twelve years she has run a weekly discussion group, giving her vast experience of listening to and understanding mothers. Here is a excerpt from this excellent book:
“If the mother's activity is limited to 'shopping', then her child's company looks like an impediment. He slows her down and distracts her from getting everything done in the usual competent way. But if we recognised that all this was part of the work, we could redefine her task as: 'mothering and shopping'. That would give her child a legitimate place in her actions. It would also explain why a mother can feel so exhausted and irritable at the end of a shopping trip. Two jobs are harder than one. It is even harder if she overlooks the second, and sees herself as accomplishing only the first. Instead of being pleased that she has combined two jobs reasonably well, she usually ends up being annoyed with herself for apparently doing one job badly.
A further example of this lack of understanding happens only too often once mother and child have come home. When the mother unpacks her shopping, she can see the result of her effects. But looking down at her toddler, she can't observe much change. She has tried to be patient with him, but he looks cross and tired, and is probably hungry.
Where has all her mothering gone? It hasn't disappeared, but it's hard to recognize. It is there, in front of her. Her child may indeed be cross. When he is cross, this may be because she has been mothering him well. He is not annoyed with her, but to her. The difference is crucial, yet easy to misunderstand. A cross child trusts his mother and has expectations of her. He asks more of her than of other people because she is close to him and seems to understand him. He often has the utmost confidence that his all-knowing mother will put things right for him.
'A baby who cries a lot may do so because he or she has a close relationship with the mother', observed two perceptive researchers at a London hospital. But this is the opposite of a widely held cultural assumption.”
Would you like you read more? Check it on out Amazon: What Mothers Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing (UK)
What do you think?
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