Child Like Parent

Have you ever had the experience of your child jumping with joy when they are super excited about something? They want to tell you all about it, while they are jumping just because it is so exciting!

Now, how many times have you held their hand and jumped along with them, sharing their excitement?

Can you imagine the look of surprise on their faces if you do that?

Have you ever jumped on the bed or the sofa with them?

Have you done 'silly things' with them like eating the cream off the biscuits and leaving the rest (for your spouse maybe :)), or make spit bubbles, danced like crazy with your child or played hide and seek - not as a parent, but as a friend? Have you done join the dots with them or color forms in their coloring book?

If you have, you will remember the joy it brought - both to you as well as to your child.

Yes, the child needs a parent, but sometimes, if the child can see a friend in their parent, then its a pleasant surprise, and we all love pleasant surprises don't we?

What is it that stops most parents from acting child like in front of their children?

There is a difference between being child-like and childish.

Parents being childish can be disturbing, but parents being child-like can be great fun for both the child and parent.

So why not take parenting as an opportunity to relive your own childhood, with the maturity of an adult?

Go ahead and smell the flowers, pick up those leaves and twigs for no reason, dance for no reason and without music, jump around, lick the cream off biscuits, count the stars, follow butterflies,  burst balloons, throw stones in a pond to see how many times it bounces, swing away on the garden swing or slide down the slide.

Bring back the inquisitiveness, and pure unadulterated joy in your lives. Let your children guide you to be Happy Adults. After all, who can be better teachers of living joyfully than our own happy go lucky children?

Pets and Children

Children have an innate need to copy the action of their parents.

We see that very often don't we - When your child wants to wear your shoes and walk around? Or they want to pretend play with their kitchen sets, doctor sets, tool kits, shopping trolleys and so on.

They like to act out being the mother or father - and I have seen both girls and boys copying their parents, and enacting them in their play.

When they enact their roles as mother or father, wouldn't it be great if their pretend child responded to their love and affection? What if their pretend child also became their best friend?

A pet can help bring out the nourishing and tender love and care tendencies of a child, as the child gets a response to the love and affection they shower upon their pet.

Of course your pet has to be treated like a family member and not like a 'guard' or a 'toy' and neither must the child allowed to be rough with the pet.

If you have a happy, balanced relation with your pet, your child is going to love being with her/ him and it is going to have great benefits on both of their emotional and mental states.

Often the pet can be a savior as well. There was a time when my daughter used to eat only if I fed her while she fed the dog. And my dog also ate only when fed by my daughter :)

So getting a pet is great for your child as long as you are able to take good care of your pet!

[And by the way, please Adopt, Don't Buy Pets. There are many that are waiting for a great home and they are out on the streets or in an animal rescue center]