Grow so your children can grow differently.
When Teddy was young, and he was learning to use an iPad, one of his brothers said to me ‘geez he’s better at using that thing than me’ and perhaps he is, even though he hasn’t been using if for a long time – and perhaps his brother wasn’t using apple, so if he did maybe he’d be pretty good at it anyway.
My response to him was ‘of course, Teddy’s upgraded software’.
Our babies are not us. When technology came into our lives, it also came into theirs. Sure, our babies need to learn the basics, don’t we all, but they also learn faster than us.
Teddy teaches us things that my brain just can’t see.
Take Roblox as an example. This online game that connects kids (in particular and I’m not going to get into the negative side of the online world) through avatars in games at the same time around the world, is amazing.
Teddy can move through obby’s like no one’s business, he can take your life before you even know he’s there and he can break down 100 moves in the blink of an eye. I’m not sure the hundred moves thing is an actual thing, but I have to tell him to slow down LOL
Lately I’ve been watching him at netball and basketball. He doesn’t get all his shots in, but for a kid who’s not even half way up the post, he gets some serious height on that ball and when he wants to, he gets some serious shots in.
In basketball, he fades away naturally. Which means, if he gets the ball, rather than going towards the ring, he goes away from the ring, then finds the free player under the ring and passes it to them.
It will be fun to watch that ‘natural’ ability evolve and whether it’s nurtured and stays or if it naturally goes.
This is the other thing I notice too, and I’m not immune to it, so this is a we conversation.
I’ve always known that our kids are a reflection of us.
If we’re stressed, then they’re stressed – they may just show it differently.
If we yell, they yell back at us – or they can crawl in a corner to hide.
If we eat crap, they eat crap.
Interestingly Teddy drinks a lot of water. He’ll ask for the other stuff – coke, powerade, cordial – but he’ll generally drink the water first.
This is because all I drank during my pregnancy was water or peppermint tea. Water is my go to, and I choose to believe that because I drank water predominantly during pregnancy, this is what he drinks.
I also didn’t have a lot of sweet foods during my pregnancy, because I couldn’t fit them in. It wasn’t until the last 2 weeks of being pregnant when I realised that I hadn’t eaten those new Salted Caramel Ice Creams…so I fixed that.
This leads me back to Teddy shooting hoops, and perhaps the gazillion I’ve put up in my lifetime through a million games of netball, has helped him be a more accurate shooter now.
Perhaps by me doing the work and growing, means he won’t have to hit the same challenges I have, or he’ll hit them differently and bounce quicker through them, and be challenged by issues that I can’t even forsee.
Perhaps by me doing the work, by me growing, by me getting uncomfortable, shining a light on the things that I want but that challenge me – perhaps he’ll burst through those things so much easier and lighter than I have.
And by doing so, he’ll bring even more light to the world.
When you look at your kids and you see the world of possibilities for them, know that they see that world of possibilities for you – and when they see you move through the obstacles, they believe they can do it too.
