The In Between

Sometimes with Miss E I feel like we're in between. In between time periods. In between life's stages. She's almost a kid, but still has the emotional maturity of a, well, two year old. I struggle when to let her be and when to intervene. When to push her, and when to give her a hand. And because of the way her personality is, I never know how she's going to react. She gets frustrated VERY easily, and really needs to be pushed to try new things. And I'm not just talking about brussel sprouts here.

My point is, I think this is where my struggle lies as a parent of a toddler lately. I want to provide the right amount of support without being over-bearing, but also letting her know she's her own person.

The other day was cleaning day, so I had the kids in their room so that while I cleaned the upstairs, I could quickly tend to, oh I don't know, Miss E trying to suffocate Mr. C.

Yes. That happened. Twice.

Anywho, once I was finished I needed to go downstairs to start dinner, so I grabbed Mr. C and told Miss E to come along. She said, "No."

And it wasn't a defiant "NO! I AM NOT DOING WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME TO DO BECAUSE I'M TWO" kind of "NO." This was a matter-of-fact, casual conversation kind of, "No."

And because I'm really trying to give her more (controlled?) independence, and because I really needed to get dinner started, and Mr. C fed, and well, you get the picture, I said, "O.K. Call me if you need me."

?!

Of course I leave her when I need to change out laundry or go to the bathroom, or I don't know, take a shower? But this is the first time she independently requested alone play time without my direction. It felt really weird.

I go on about my evening and probably 20 or so minutes later I realize that it's silent upstairs. Like, the eerie silence you could only expect all of the clothes from the closet strewn across the room. Or all of the toilet paper thrown all over the bathroom. And then the realization hits that the diaper pail is no longer locked because of those stupid springy things that broke, and OHMYGOODNESS THERE IS POOP ALL OVER THEIR ROOM. And anticipating this I grab the camera (of course), then RUN AS FAST AS POSSIBLE up the stairs...

"Mommy, I practice buttons."

My sweet, sweet girl. Playing by herself. Because I let her. Love that kid.


Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda