LET IT GO…

C. Depositphotos/bloodua

What happened to my adorable baby and WHO is this temperamental toddler?

Where’s my baby? as they march off to school.

“You’re not old enough for that!” as they enter teenage.

“Don’t you want to be with me?” as they enter early adulthood.

All of these plaintive cries mean we missed the eyelid blink in which our child morphed into their next stage of development.

It often happens so quickly we find ourselves mourning the loss of who they were in the last stage because we didn’t get to say goodbye.

Family activities are a sure way to see this parental shock and resistance in action. The kids who used to LOVE Timezone or that one little Pizza place and chocolate sundaes now declare them “boring.”

Often we are tempted to try to push them back or to say something inane like, “What is WRONG with you? Don’t you like chocolate anymore?”

Leaping into a new stage…

Once we snap out of ourselves long enough to acknowledge a developmental transition has occurred we can begin to use it to our advantage.

We don’t want to miss the magic of what has appeared because we are stuck in mourning about what we “used” to have.

The favourite family activity changes overnight from a picnic in the park to Timezone, which later becomes surfing at the beach, which changes to movie night, which becomes looking at the new games in the mall, which becomes…. you get the idea.

The important thing is that if we watch what they want to do now and begin to adjust and weave the changes into family life we still get to enjoy being together.

Teens who refuse the pizza place introduce us to Teppanyaki and Bubble Tea and Anime. (You might find that you actually LIKE Totoro… who doesn’t?)

The point is that our children’s growth and development will open up new worlds for us if we allow them.

Let it go or you will be frozen in time, stuck wishing your kids were still little and missing who they are now.

Don’t be frozen. 

Enjoy!

With care,

Dr. T.

Photocredits (in order): c. Depositphotos/Bloodua, Hurricanehank, Kartouchken. MimagePhotos.