"You should trust your daughter more!" A friend told me in a light-hearted manner. Well, I confess I do fail at times. Just the other day, my daughter volunteered to scoop the rice during dinner. My heart cringed seeing the 5-year old took the ceramic plates from the drawer, placed them beside the rice cooker, then stood on an Ikea stool and reached her hand into the hot rice cooker with a scoop. She did it and proved how little faith I had.
Take a look at the cover photo. What do you see? That's her self-made hand phone from a piece of cardboard when she was bored. My wife told me how she drew the buttons in front, camera at the back and plugged in the earphone. I was so impressed that I have got to take a photo of it. I believe your child must have done, are doing or will do something that would impress the heck out of you. Children have such wonderful imagination and boundless creativity. But we often carelessly allow them to be suppressed & buried along the way.
I remember reading about Ann Makosinski, a Canadian born in 1997. She was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 at 16. Ann didn't have many toys as a child. But she had a glue gun and did amazing things with it. The time spent tinkering and experimenting led to her invention of the Thermoelectric Flashlight that won her the Google Science Fair in 2013. Such an inspiration. Google or check out her Tedtalk, which she has appeared in 5 with the first at 16. Man, where and what was I doing at the age of 16. Talk about my wasted youth. Ha!
Two thoughts I wish to leave for us to ponder. The first is to echo what my friend said. Trust our child more. It's about our mind-set and speaks of letting go. If we measure our child with our outdated and limited ruler, they might only achieve as much. How scary. Secondly, don't over-teach or over-coach. Yes, we know and have experienced more in life. But have we asked ourselves how many of those are flawed? Instead, why not give them more room to explore and work things out while we cheer them on. They will surprise you, that much I'm sure. Happy parenting!
#HappyParenting #BetterOurselves