Children are generally considered a gift. However, not long after this gift arrives comes the part everyone dreads –
Care. Anyone who has had reason to look after children will agree that those cute little faces seem to have the innate ability to drive you nuts!
Here are some tips to help you cope if you find yourself saddled with this task.
“Scatter – Scatter”
One of the most frustrating things is trying to keep everything in its place with the precious little ones running about. Bat an eyelid and your precious iPhone could end up down the toilet bowl. Here’s the thing, sometimes their so-called lack of order is just their way of experimenting to find new ideas, and perhaps reveal new things to you. Instead of screaming your lungs out every time the bathroom mop finds its way to the sitting room, why not pause to consider what ingenuity could be lying beneath this action. And so what if Mama Junior next door thinks your house isn’t tidy enough? Trust me; her opinion doesn’t affect the price of fish in the market.
The Unbeatable Attorneys
The most ruthless cross-examination lawyers can never measure up to the skills of those cute little batting eyes. Amazingly, they have only one weapon of attack – The question, ‘Why?’ Typically, it starts with one normal question, which once you answer, is followed by up to 10 “Whys”. Sometimes this could make you feel like strapping masking tape around their mouths to have some peace. But have you considered utilizing this tool as a brain teaser? As grown-ups we’ve stopped questioning things around us. Attempt replying as many “Whys” as you can. You’ll be shocked at how fast this can sharpen your brain activity, or even open your eyes to new ideas.
Listen
You have a work deadline first thing tomorrow morning and need every time available, but this is the time the little ones decide to give you a load down of how their day went. Usually, you can barely get the point of their gist. This scenario gets even more interesting when the time to your deadline is shorter than short. Or is it? Believe it or not, five minutes of your time to hear them out won’t make the sky turn red tomorrow. On the contrary, it can serve as a short break to refresh you mentally, so that when you return to your work, you’ll achieve quality advancement. More importantly, the children will feel heard and that counts for much in their little minds.
Perfectly imperfect.
A simple task of moving a cup from point A to point B can result in water all over the carpet, even worse, a slip and fall with an injury. Before you get upset at how silly they were to have been staring at the TV and not watching where they were going, remember that you did the same thing when you were watching that movie. Besides, that fall is more than enough a lesson to be more careful next time. We all make mistakes, how much more kids?
Control your temper
This tip is quite central to the concept of keeping your sanity. You snapped because you were under pressure? Welcome to the real world! There will always be pressure from one side or another. It’s up to you to decide how you handle it. And even if you snapped, it’s not out of place to apologize to them. You could just be teaching them Anger Management, not to mention humility.
Participate
Sometimes you just have to forget your age and engage in some of those “silly” activities they’ve been pleading with you to take part in. It’s about time the child in you came out. Life would be a bit easier if we saw children not as an obstruction to our well planned out schedules, but an escape from this world of adulthood that chokes with seriousness.
