The Little in the Big of Us

I’m a grandmother, “Noni” of a remarkable two-and-a-half-year-old little guy who absolutely owns my heart. I’m also a retired educator. At the tail end of my career, I served families of children who have hearing loss ages birth to three. In that role, I focused on educating and coaching parents and caregivers on fostering their children’s audition, social, and communication development. I was often puzzled by parents’ expectations of these very young children especially when they reached 18 months to 3 years and found myself giving them an adult scenario — analogy to help them adjust to more reasonable expectations for the little kids. They would sometimes laugh and say, “Oh, okay. I get what you’re saying. I need to see it through their eyes.”

So, I was spending time with my little “gbaby” and we were winding down for bed and he needed a little more help than typical that night to do so. I talked to him about all the things we had done that day. I applauded him on all the transitions he managed and I realized we had a full day! No wonder he was overly tired and I said to him, “What a Day!” That made my teacher's light bulb go off and I penned this story.

What A Day!

As soon as you open your laptop you’ve already got a ton of emails to respond to! It’s only 7:30. A co-worker tells you they start vacation tomorrow and you are their out-of-office contact. You’re learning to drink from an open cup and you spill your milk. The teacher says you can have more but she missed the point of your tears. You’re upset because your shirt is wet. You’re off base with meeting the project deadline so you’ll be working at home tonight. Your co-worker comes to your workspace with 15 minutes of drama venting. Hmmm, what did that do for your daily affirmations?

You are so proud of building a high tower with your blocks and a little friend kicks them down! Fine motor skills are not easy! You’re just trying to get to the slide on the playground and another little friend pushes you down. Your office is short-staffed so you have to do the work of two people. A little friend really missed their mommy today so they cried for a very, very long time. You have pinned up energy because it rained today and you didn’t get to play outside. You had a peer review by a peer who wasn’t competent to do the review. There was a shortage of teachers today so you had to go to a different class and nobody gave you the heads up! What a day!

So, all you want to do when you get home is….. watch NCIS, Cocomelon, Vanderpumps, Paw Patrol, ESPN, Peppa Pig, Golf, CARS, CNN….

My point? There’s the little in the big of us. I hope I stirred your thinking and aroused some emotion. Stoop down, slow down, and see through their eyes. The behavior you witness in the store or the restaurant may just be that of a little one who had a rough day.

Always encouraging reflection,

WandaP