When years ago, I was asked to write an article about motherhood, I started by describing how much mothers are venerated in this world. What came to mind were Madonna paintings, statues of Mother Mary, all the symbols in art and culture where mothers are depicted in an aura of holiness and reverence. The person …
A few months ago we were faced with an important decision: whether or not we would be staying in South Africa where we have built our lives over the course of the past 10 years, or whether we would leave the country. A decision of this magnitude that pertains to uprooting your life and raises …
After giving birth to my daughter and finding myself with a new body, one that wasn’t exactly in a state of health, fitness and well being, a question came up within me: How can I accept my body if I want to change it? We’re bombarded with suggestions of accepting ourselves and accepting our bodies, …
A tribute to the dads😁. Our hubbies both walked a process with animals, the farm, us, their partners, and many people throughout their lives that they supported and continue to support directly or indirectly – to learn about responsibility, accountability, stability, directiveness and strength, but also about care, tenderness, gentleness, compassion, dedication, warmth and expression. …
How often do we use manipulation tactics to get our children to behave in a way that we think is best? Even when we have on a conscious level let go of the practice of punishing and rewarding, we’ll at times notice ourselves trying to assert ourselves as authority, or inadvertently deny them the opportunity …
This post is a continuation to the post ‘The thought of Losing My Child’ and ‘Fear of Losing my Child – Self-Forgiveness (Part 1)‘. After sharing my experience during the time Syntia had tickbite fever, I received awesome support from several moms, including Leila’s post ‘The death of my child, the death of me’. After …
This post is a continuation to the post ‘The thought of Losing My Child’. After sharing my experience during the time Syntia had tick-bite fever, I received awesome support from several moms, including Leila’s post ‘The Death of a Child, the Death of Me’. After taking everything in and introspecting on my experiences more, I …
As soon as Syntia started exploring solids, we’ve let her decide what she wants to eat. Initially she was mostly interested in a small selection of fruits, but she quickly expanded her tastes and interests to a large and varied range of foods. Sometimes her choices seem odd to me, like choosing a tomato as …
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=YW0BFh5jCagAX8o4-_O&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfAu5PXgozAsoNXkk2oVpvh6PLzszyXUuzDSKFLhABau9A&oe=647E3CD2)
