Richard Hearn decides to let kids be kids
A week late here’s my main resolution: stop getting annoyed when my children are being, well, there’s no other word for it – childish. Sometimes it’s when they are doing those things that utterly sum up childhood, that I’m either impatient or, and again there’s no other word for it – distracted. Often it’s the moments that you should later look on with particular fondness that, in the present, I get particularly moany about.
For example, puddles. Recently, we went to Middle Farm, and Youngest™ took massive delight in jumping in every single puddle that he saw. Water rose up his trouser legs in a capillary action. It was bitterly cold, and I could hear my own Dad’s voice in my head saying he’d get a chill. But while Youngest™ was loving it and passers by looked on with misty eyes, I spent my whole time ineffectively telling him off.
“A child will suddenly run from one end of a room to the other just in order to get there quicker”
Adults don’t normally jump in puddles. This is probably their loss. We don’t run normally either, except as ‘exercise’ or when we’re about to miss a bus, or that funny little skip-run, when a car has let you cross the road and you’re showing willing. Kids run all the time.
A child will suddenly run from one side of the room to the other just in order to get there quicker, or start running when going to the Post Office simply for the hell – or heaven – of it. They’re not even trying to lose weight.
Puddles and random running are pure childhood, the favourite memories of the future. And there’s me telling them to ‘stop doing that’ or ‘slow down’ while it’s happening.
Relax – that’s the key. Enjoy these moments. I actually said the phrase, ‘play something less exciting’ to The Boy the other day. It was bath time which meant that it was nearing night-time and I was desperate for Youngest™ to go to sleep. The Boy was actually doing a good job of keeping Youngest™ amused, but I was busy interjecting.
At the other end of the day I can get impatient when The Boy is asking me to choose which Ben10 character to draw. I’m sometimes a bit short with him and won’t even pick from a choice of two. Yes, this is mainly because it’s 6:25 and when I find it hard enough to do quite simple tasks (e.g. breathe in, breathe out) but it’s not really his fault, I’ve had a bad night’s sleep.
So that’s my resolution, I’ve decided to stop being Grumpy. As we near the end of the pantomime season, answers on a postcard as to which of the other six I should try and become.
