Tuesday, October 16, 2012

An effort to raise an independent child

 As a mom of an 11 month old, I'm finding every day is a delicate dance between insanity and glee.  There is only Right Now in Harper's mind.  She is learning consequence, but won't learn patience or expectation for some time yet.  She is also starting to stretch the bonds that connect to me, and is finding they go a bit farther than before. 

 She loves to explore and play.  She has found that taking everything out of her diaper bag is a great game, and would have me keep filling it up and up until she tires of the contents. 

I want her to explore and I want her to be safe.  Those two things won't always live side by side, but for today we experimented and found a welcome middle. 
 I left Harper to empty and fill the bottom drawers of her changing table today.  The top drawers were taped shut, and I shoved towels in the path of the drawer so her fingers wouldn't be caught if she slammed them shut.
 She was happily exploring her socks, diapers, bibs, toys and what ever else she could find.  Every few minutes I would walk back and ask how she was, then left to stand at the end of the kitchen. 


 My view wasn't perfect, but I think it's good for Harper to learn to play where SHE can't see ME. 


 And to be honest, it's good for me to let her play alone.  Some of the joy of being a child is the finding out of things.  So this will progress.  And for today, we both did okay. 

And Harper got more practice in picking up and putting away all of the things she pulled out and explored.  

1 comment:

  1. And what a beautiful red sweater she is wearing! I love it with her stripey leggings.

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