“Don’t Drop It!”

Posted in Parenting on Aug 02, 2010 - 04:10 PM

This morning, my mouth dropped in horror as I realized how I must sound when I speak to my child.

She was making me pretend stew in her cooking bowl and when she handed it to me to "eat," she said, "Now don't drop it! It will make a mess!" Her voice was so serious and stern, and yet so familiar. I quickly realized that was because she was echoing the same thing I tell her every time I hand her a bowl or plate.

What mistrust I must be conveying to her! At four--nearly five--of course she knows not to drop a bowl or plate. So why do I keep telling her not to, which surely only reinforces the idea that I find her incapable, clumsy, or unable to be trusted--none of which are true.

The things we learn about ourselves are just as insightful as the things we learn about our children through role play and modeling. I think if we all paid close attention to what is going on in our child's imaginative play, we might find out a lot about our parenting styles--both the good and the bad--as well as some inspiration for changing our behavior.

Tags for this entry:
parenting, parent involvement, imagination, imaginative play, modeling, play time, role playing

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