Posts Tagged ‘kindness’

Let It Slide

Monday, April 15th, 2013

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
At our local park or indoor play space, there’s a lot for a toddler like Haley to navigate. She explores, and my job is to keep her safe and having fun. A major part of the playing experience is interacting with other children and their caretakers. I try not to underestimate the importance of this, as it serves as Haley’s first taste of what social interaction should look like.

It’s interesting to observe what goes on and how children and their parents or nannies react to the myriad different situations. An event that occurs very often is confusion over the slide. Some kids are slow to slide down. Some simply stand at the top. Some want to move quickly, but they’re just too little to keep up with the other kids. Sometimes kids stand at the bottom of the slide after they’ve gone down and they just won’t move.

I don’t always know how to talk to a child who isn’t being closely supervised. I try to be nice but firm when they’re being unfair or causing the area to become crowded and therefore dangerous. It’s a lot better when the guardian is right there, and the vast majority of the times, everyone is polite.

However, I’ve noticed that parents often place a high priority on making sure their child is treated fairly. The concept of “advocating for your child” seems not be lost on most modern parents—and that’s great. I want to make sure Haley understands to take her turn and not hold things up, but I’m slow to have her pounce on every opportunity. Even if she’s been waiting, even if the cut another kid makes in the line is especially egregious, I encourage her (at this age, I’m forcing her, really) to take a step back and wait a little longer.

I want Haley to understand that the vast majority of the time, nothing will be lost from being gracious. It doesn’t hurt her to wait. It doesn’t hurt her to give. I’m not trying to raise a doormat—but there’s not much risk of a child of mine turning out that way. She will learn self-respect from my example. And I think there’s time for those lessons. But it’s never too early to learn kindness. Teaching a toddler empathy is definitely no easy task, but it’s a skill she needs to be equipped with to navigate not only the playground, but the world.