Isn't that true of our own children? When I had my daughter I did all I could to teach her to talk to help her learn to read to show her how to get along in the world. Through out all of it there were so many moments when she taught me lessons also. Patience on many days ,lol. But amazement at how totally awesome she was.
Not just because she is smart as five of me,but her perseverance and determination not to let life get her down. I remember when we thought maybe it was time to take the training wheels off her bike. She told us to do it. She promptly fell over sideways. She got back on and drove in circles around and around the driveway,not straight down the driveway,but in circles. She said she could balance better that way. She spent a couple hours doing it that way until she felt she had it down,than she took off straight down the drive. I watched her in amazement thinking to myself that this was a child who would succeed and would do it her own way.
My daughter was a thumb sucker. Not just the occasional thumb sucker,nope a pretty major I love my thumb,sucker. Well all this sucking started to do a number on the roof of her little mouth and it was causing some pretty severe teeth jamming issues. So when she was three and a half we took her to this awesome orthodontist doctor who sat her down and talked with her like an adult for about 20 minutes. Mano e Mano,just her and him. He explained to this little girl what her thumb sucking was doing to her mouth and why she needed to try to stop this habit. He gave her some stickers and told her to stick them in places around the house where she was most likely to suck her thumb and when she saw the stickers it would remind her not to suck her thumb. We came home and she put one on the front of the TV and one at the end of her bed. She said to us. "I'm going to suck my thumb tonight and than tomorrow I'm not going to suck it anymore". And she didn't . We would watch her while she watched TV and her hand would slowly move toward her mouth and she would look at the sticker and stop . At night while she was falling asleep I would see her half asleep bringing her small hand toward her mouth and then some subconscious reminder would stop her from putting it in her mouth. After a week she didn't need the reminder stickers anymore,she had stopped.
I knew from than on the best way to communicate with this little girl would be to talk to her like an adult,or as an equal. All children can respect that. And in doing so ,we can also learn from them. My daughter is going to become a mother this year and it will amaze her at how many times this child will be the one who teaches her and helps her grow,just as she did me.
