Parenthood and Childcare. Includes Video

I now know what it’s like to be a parent, (sorry, am starting to understand what it might feel like). I have been nursing my brigade of babies for nearly a year now. I have started to notice their individual personalities and habits in relation to my behaviour.

Case Study: Sarah.

You may recall that I have raved on about this angel a few times. The cutest girl. The cutest laugh. The cutest expressions when happy, sad, confused and embarrassed, basically any emotion she finds herself in, she manages to make it rub off with a cute, cat eyed expression.

She was sadly absent when my Dad and Step-mother visited the school back in May. I was hoping for some external evidence to her level of cuteness. Things recently have taken a turn. Christine Teacher and I have noticed a lot of differences. She has physically grown, quite substantially. Slightly taller, and thinner in the face, she now swaggers with slenderness rather then an adolescent waddle. But it’s her attitude that concerns us. The abundance of addictive gaggles and head tilting has stopped and a more frequent frown and head dropping has substituted.

It has made me look at how I have changed. What have I been doing differently since the start?

I realised that my attitude towards her has changed, I have given her less and less attention as time went on. It’s natural to recline in your giving to someone over a period of time. In a grown up relationship this is, in a way, acceptable (to a certain degree) because you’re both grown up and have a mutual level of understanding. In this case, Sarah is only four years old. I need to maintain a constant level of love for her and every other child for that matter. I created my own situation by giving her SO much love and attention from the start. If I begin to drop that level of ‘love giving’ then she will notice and wonder why I don’t love her anymore and her mood will change, which has happened.

So I need to revert to the early days of daily ‘Baby Time’, over the top praise and constant funny loving faces. ‘Baby Time’ was created very early on as it was apparent that she liked to be picked up, cradled in my arms and swung gently from side to side, in the same fashion as a mother would do to its newly born.

Fascinating insight into the world of childcare. Something that is particularly interesting to me at the moment – who’d of thought!!??!!

Sarah on top form........