After a successful first week in the blogger-sphere, I completely freaked out and thought ‘why am I doing this?’, ‘Why am I expecting people to read my rubbish?’ and ‘what’s the actual point in it all?’ I then saw that my little amateur website has already had 2,000 views and I panicked even more about my silly little ‘Dear Diary’ entries and almost deleted everything. I’ve decided to push on and this week my post will include more facts so I can show you how intelligent and intellectual I am.
I’m not particularly competitive. Well, maybe I am but I never win anything so it’s best to set the expectations as low as possible. I remember 20 of us going to laser quest once. I came last. I even got beaten by an 8 year old so I threw a tantrum and stormed out of the building. I was 23.
I don’t want to be competitive about Molly. I won’t be a mother who stands at the school gates showing off about how fantastic my daughter is and how she is the best at everything (because if she is anything like her mother, she won’t be the best at anything!) I have quite a relaxed attitude and will support and encourage her to try her hardest, and to try new things but I don’t want to push her. That said, I will be signing her up to a French class soon and this is something I will be particularly insistent about. It is proven that learning another language as a child (the younger the better) not only improves critical thinking skills but encourages creativity and flexibility of the mind. Once a child has learnt a second language they acquire the ability to pick up additional languages more easily. Interesting fact: The French language has seventeen different words for ‘surrender’ (told you I’m intelligent)
Without a doubt, my favorite thing in the world is the sound of Molly’s bedroom door opening, followed by her little footsteps running down the hall into my room. She then crawls into my bed and wraps her arms round my neck whilst whispering ‘I love you mummy’ before going back to sleep for an hour or two in my arms. My Friday feeling usually starts on a Wednesday at 4.30, when I am on route to pick up Molly from nursery after 2 days of not seeing her and knowing that I will be woken up at the crack of dawn by the sound of her bedroom door opening. This weekend was my weekend with her and I had lots of exciting plans that didn’t involve me making her sick (Yes, I really did make her sick last weekend. I felt terrible. I took her to the cinema and we over did it on the sweeties)
Another interesting fact: Banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour.
Molly is clever and she often outsmarts me, it’s terrifying actually. When she was two I got interrupted mid-sentence by her saying ‘uh-huh, yes, well OK Mummy, I’m going into the living room now because you’re boring me’; the other day my mum took her to see the horses and when I asked if the horse came over to say hello, she rolled her eyes and said ‘Don’t be silly mummy, horses can’t talk’. This weekend I took her for a walk in the woods and hid a few toy ‘fairies’ for her to find. There was no way she could outsmart this magical little experience.
As we stumbled across the fairies her eyes lit up and she was so excited. It was heart melting to watch as an observer, let alone as her mother, seeing this innocent little girl entering a world of pure imagination and excitement through outdoor play. I will now make sure that I encourage outdoor activities as much as possible, not only is it a good form of exercise but also enhances social, emotional and cognitive development. As nice as it is to show her things for the first time (like the cinema), I am sure she will be more inclined to remember the time where she found Tinkerbell in the woods rather than when Alvin and The Chipmunks went to Miami.
We sure did have a magical weekend together. Adventure starts at home. Oh, and her best friend came round to play and Molly put her in a box.
The Adventures of A Part Time Parent 