Sunday, September 03, 2017

The Toddler || Our Greatest Life Coach



As a parent, one of our main roles is to teach our babelings the ways of the world. We endeavour to bring them up as decent functioning happy human beings and educate them as best we can on the world around them. 

But do we really know best?

It occurred to me the other day, that actually most our learning, the really important core value life stuff mostly comes after having children, we actually learn a lot from them. Suddenly seeing the beauty in the little things, from appreciating tiny bugs to noisy helicopters, seeing the world through a fresh pair of eyes can be a pretty mind blowing experience and truly makes you appreciate life in a whole new light. 

The things they teach us can be far more important than the things we teach them and to explain this a little more, I thought I'd share five things that we can take from our toddlers right now, that as adults we tend to avoid or just generally be pretty rubbish at.
I can't speak for all of us, but aside from family days out, I can't really say I have much fun. Toddlers have fun constantly, they make a game out of anything, they sing, they express themselves however they feel like, they don't give two shits what anyone thinks of them and they absolutely bloody love life. Fun as a grown up tends to be too planned, non spontaneous and we are just generally pretty boring people to have around some of the time. I try and have more fun now, I don't really care what people think of me so I'm letting all that go and doing more that pleases me.


Adults are generally just a big old bag of grumpy, bitchy sad faces. Toddlers and kids tend to be honest, often brutally honest, but do you know what? That is pretty refreshing. How nice would it be to live in a world where people showed it when they were upset and didn't feel they had to hide it, for people to say what they thought to others faces instead of behind backs and for people to just tell others they like/love/dislike them to save time messing about. Toddlers are the smart ones here, they don't hang about, they let you know the score, they wear their heart on their sleeve and if they're not cool with something, you'll be sure to know about it.




This one is super important. Us adults seriously can't take a compliment, we are the first to put ourselves down to get in there first. Screw that. This is where toddlers are miles ahead of the game, they totally have this sussed. A toddler will look in the mirror and smile, they'll give themselves a kiss, they'll say 'I'm pretty/clever/handsome/amazing/beautiful'. They just love the way they are, they're proud of themselves for every achievement and it's totally sad that that self love fades as we get older. We should all take this one on from the todds, learn to love ourselves again and find the positives. If in doubt, ask your toddler what's good about you, you can bet they will be brutally honest with their feedback.






Say for example I'm a Mum, I'm 33 and I quite like cats. Well as a grown up I feel a bit silly wearing a cat teeshirt with cat hair clips, cat bed covers, cat posters on my wall, but toddlers? They wear the passions like a badge of honour, they want all the things, they shout about it, wear all the clothes and why not? There is absolutely nothing wrong with being passionate about things and so many of us stifle our loves for fear of what others will think/say. This is silly. If we love something there is nothing wrong with showing it off, who cares? If you're 45 and love Justin Bieber it's all good, wear the teeshirt, go to his concerts, get the tattoo even. Life is simply too short to worry about being embarrassed, the people that matter don't care and the people that care don't matter!
I know us parents don't get much sleep, but how much of that is down to us enjoying the blissful midnight hours of silence, working too much or staying up on a Netflix binge? Toddlers sleep when they're tired. It's not rocket science to them, it's simple just as it should be for us. Lack of sleep has huge knock on effects on our health and well being and is so important. So, sleep like a toddler (well one that sleeps well) for a week and see how you feel.




In a sense, living the toddler life is really freeing, they don't put up with nonsense, they love themselves and if they don't say like something they are honest about it. In contrast, when they love something they really go all out and smile sunbeams to show their contentedness. 

It may sound silly, but it is something to think about and I for one will try harder to learn the ways of my wise three year old, ditching the insecurities and stresses of adulthood. Life's too short - they don't even know that yet, but they live life to the max! 

Take note from these gorgeous wise little wonderful people we created, they will remind us how to live.

#BeThreeBeFree




You Baby Me Mummy
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