Learning from Our Children

I am an incredibly impatient person.  I come by this honestly, let me tell you!  My mother was the most impatient person I have ever met, and she sure taught me well.  One of the many things I catch myself doing that is an echo of her is prodding my kids along when they are being pokey - calling over my shoulder, "Come on slowpoke!"  Yep, I embody my mother in many, many ways.  And now I see my daughters echoing these things, and I think to myself, OH NO!  Please don't learn impatience from me.  Please don't learn to be stressed out when you don't have the perfect shoes to match your outfit, or things don't fit right, or you don't have enough time.  Please don't have a chronic, ridiculous need to be early for everything.  I am finding myself more and more taking a step back from my neurotic-ness to observe my oldest daughter, and her many refreshing, redeeming qualities.

On her last report card in Kindergarten, my daughter's teacher commented that she "has demonstrated a level of compassion [she] has never witnessed in a kindergarten student before.  She shows concern not only for her classmates but for the environment and animals as well.  She has a deep understanding of the world around her."  Talk about blowing me away!  I mean, I know my daughter is remarkable, but to hear it like that from someone else just makes my heart swell even more (brag, brag, brag).  What can I learn from this?  That I need to understand the world around me too.

My world consists of children, children and...wait for it...more children!  I need to take a cue from my kiddo and learn a little more compassion and patience.  I am sometimes too short, or too quick to judge whether they have done something against the rules, and I need to just listen more and try better to understand them.  Kids come from a completely different place than adults, and I realize that I need to try to remember where I came from when I was a kid myself.  I know it was so incredibly long ago (insert dry laugh here) but not too far away that I can't remember. 

We can learn from everyone around us if we just open ourselves up to the opportunity.  The most innocent can teach the best lessons too!