Love your story and thanks for the reminder to recognize the little moments of joy. We have an introverted, academic 9 year old daughter and a goofy, boisterous 6 year old son. 9 regularly chastises 6 for EVERYTHING- not flushing the toilet, not washing his hands. I mean, good stuff, but please, he’s got parents on his case too. Last night at dinner he caught her reading a book (outlawed only at dinner) and called her out. The look on both of their faces - all smiles as they recognized the irony, some humility. It made me realize they GET each other and were kind of proud of themselves for it.
That's so lovely! It reminds me of what psychologist and sibling expert Laurie Kramer told me about sibling bickering for my newsletter a few months ago — that sometimes bickering can sound so annoying and negative to us but is actually something kids kind of enjoy. I have noticed this happen with my kids, too -- they'll go from intense bickering to joking and laughing and I'm like, what just happened?! But it's so great. Here's the link to that newsletter if anyone wants to read more: https://melindawmoyer.substack.com/p/how-to-put-an-end-to-sibling-bickering
My sister-in-law got me a page-a-day calendar and each page has a *terrible* but hilarious pun. It's brought me so much joy that my 9-year-old understands the jokes and we can share in that moment together. My 8-year-old likes to read a book to my mom over the phone some nights (she lives a few states away) and it's so special and endearing.
It's been really hard to find joy in parenting lately-thanks for posting this. :)
Love this. My kids love jokes too. My 11-year-old told me this one the other day: A boy asked a girl, "When's your birthday?" She answered, "March first." So he marched around the room and then said, 'OK, so when's your birthday?"
My kids are adults. My daughter has her own business as a behavior specialist and is so good at what she does. My son recently bought a house in the woods in Oregon and is living his best mountain man life. Parenting is hard, but I hope this gives those of you with small ones hope. They will grow up and become wonderful humans.
Last week my 2 year old had RSV and so stayed home from daycare. My MIL looked after her in the mornings and every day when I came home, my daughter would run to the front door chanting "Mama I love you I love you I love you" 🥹
I still can’t put into words why we wanted kids so badly, but I do recognize all the things that make it awesome. Especially when my daughter, 18m old, discovers something on her own it puts me in touch with the sense of exploration and discovery I once had. Most recently she, seemingly out of nowhere, started blowing bubbles in the bath and the next day her milk. I wasn’t as thrilled about the milk, but it made me laugh uncontrollably so I had to bite my tongue to ask my husband “help!” before leaving the room to fall to pieces with laughter.
My 19 month old has been singing recently. He does The Wheels on the Bus (but every word is "yah") and E-I-E-I-O and a few others. It is just SO cute and I am so loving this age and all the new things he's capable of.
Our 17 month old has recently been learning that when people are sad, things like hugs or “milkies” make them feel better. Yesterday at the park, she saw another little boy starting crying, turned to me, and said: “Mama, hug?” I said sure and she went over to give the little boy a hug. My heart about exploded watching her really start to empathize with others. (I then had to teach her that no, I could not give “milkies” to the 11 year old boy that was crying... “milkies” is what she says when she wants to breastfeed 😂)
Wow! That kind of emotional awareness is beautiful!! My daughter is about the same age and now I am looking forward to seeing her develop empathy, thanks for sharing.
My 3.5 year old doesn't like wearing clothes at home. We don't mind that he's just in underwear with us, but it's been a struggle sometimes to get him to understand that he needs to wear clothes when guests come over. At Target the other day I found some velour pants in the boys' section and bought them for him because I know he likes soft fabrics. After I showed him the new pants, unprompted he told me that he loves them, doesn't want to get them dirty by wearing them outside and that these will be his "guest pants" from now on. He's finally accepted that we wear clothes for guests and designated pants for this!
My daughter is 10 and she recently had a little friend drama. We talked about it, I validated her feelings and helped her think about how she wanted to handle it, she got teary, and when we were done she actually said "Thanks mom, I feel better! I'm lucky you're a therapist so you know how to help me!" I recognize that in a few years she might be mad at me when I offer support and tell me not to "therapize" her but I'm glad right now she thinks I'm helpful.
A sleepy cuddle with my 4 year old this morning was just pure sensory delight. He was just out of bed so he was toasty warm with fleecy pjs on and he smelled delicious and fit perfectly in my lap. I was just enjoying it so much especially because his older brother who is only 6 is already so tall and doesn’t fit on my knee in that same way so I was really aware that I wont always have those same cuddles!
I feel closer to my partner since we've had our baby last spring. Taking care of our kid together has been such a great time of being and learning together.
Weird example -- he figured out breast pumps (which one to get, how all the settings work, how to manage all the little parts) and I got to sit down and be like, "ugh, what do I do next?" -- he had all the answers but was so chill about how he provided them. More importantly, we've seen each others' tiredest, grumpiest selves and have learned how to forgive in those moments.
Not to mention the times we wake up at 3am to a cooing, flailing infant and are both like, "wow, I love this baby so much right now."
“Let’s get naked & dance friends!”My 3y/o pre-bath with her 1 y/o brother & pretend pals, pure joy & naked dances...of course until bro steals the pink pig bath toy lol.
I was getting dressed upstairs while my two older boys were eating breakfast. Meanwhile, my 18 month old woke up and I decided I would get her after I finished getting dressed. 10 minutes later, i went to get her and saw she was not in her crib. The boys had gently taken her out of her crib and carefully walked her down the stairs. When I came down, she was sitting at the table, with a bib on, eating a toasted frozen waffle. I was so grateful to them for being such amazing and caring brothers to their younger sister and I was also so grateful to them for really helping me out when I was feeling overwhelmed and rushed to get everyone out the door on time. KIDS ARE AMAZING!
We had daycare conferences for our 3 year old last week. The first thing the teacher told us was “You have a very kind sweet little boy.”
Those moments are the BEST. That’s wonderful!
Oh to have kind children is the dream! That’s how we all ended up here right? Haha
Love your story and thanks for the reminder to recognize the little moments of joy. We have an introverted, academic 9 year old daughter and a goofy, boisterous 6 year old son. 9 regularly chastises 6 for EVERYTHING- not flushing the toilet, not washing his hands. I mean, good stuff, but please, he’s got parents on his case too. Last night at dinner he caught her reading a book (outlawed only at dinner) and called her out. The look on both of their faces - all smiles as they recognized the irony, some humility. It made me realize they GET each other and were kind of proud of themselves for it.
That's so lovely! It reminds me of what psychologist and sibling expert Laurie Kramer told me about sibling bickering for my newsletter a few months ago — that sometimes bickering can sound so annoying and negative to us but is actually something kids kind of enjoy. I have noticed this happen with my kids, too -- they'll go from intense bickering to joking and laughing and I'm like, what just happened?! But it's so great. Here's the link to that newsletter if anyone wants to read more: https://melindawmoyer.substack.com/p/how-to-put-an-end-to-sibling-bickering
My 2.5 year old has been saying “mommy, we are best friends” so I’ve been a puddle all week.
OMG LOVE.
My sister-in-law got me a page-a-day calendar and each page has a *terrible* but hilarious pun. It's brought me so much joy that my 9-year-old understands the jokes and we can share in that moment together. My 8-year-old likes to read a book to my mom over the phone some nights (she lives a few states away) and it's so special and endearing.
It's been really hard to find joy in parenting lately-thanks for posting this. :)
Love this. My kids love jokes too. My 11-year-old told me this one the other day: A boy asked a girl, "When's your birthday?" She answered, "March first." So he marched around the room and then said, 'OK, so when's your birthday?"
My kids are adults. My daughter has her own business as a behavior specialist and is so good at what she does. My son recently bought a house in the woods in Oregon and is living his best mountain man life. Parenting is hard, but I hope this gives those of you with small ones hope. They will grow up and become wonderful humans.
Yes, this is so heartwarming. Thank you for sharing!!
Last week my 2 year old had RSV and so stayed home from daycare. My MIL looked after her in the mornings and every day when I came home, my daughter would run to the front door chanting "Mama I love you I love you I love you" 🥹
I still can’t put into words why we wanted kids so badly, but I do recognize all the things that make it awesome. Especially when my daughter, 18m old, discovers something on her own it puts me in touch with the sense of exploration and discovery I once had. Most recently she, seemingly out of nowhere, started blowing bubbles in the bath and the next day her milk. I wasn’t as thrilled about the milk, but it made me laugh uncontrollably so I had to bite my tongue to ask my husband “help!” before leaving the room to fall to pieces with laughter.
Have definitely had to leave the kitchen to laugh out of eyesight during dinner antics!
My 19 month old has been singing recently. He does The Wheels on the Bus (but every word is "yah") and E-I-E-I-O and a few others. It is just SO cute and I am so loving this age and all the new things he's capable of.
I'm out of town for work this week, and yesterday my preschooler said "you're doing a really good job being alone, Daddy" 💞
Our 17 month old has recently been learning that when people are sad, things like hugs or “milkies” make them feel better. Yesterday at the park, she saw another little boy starting crying, turned to me, and said: “Mama, hug?” I said sure and she went over to give the little boy a hug. My heart about exploded watching her really start to empathize with others. (I then had to teach her that no, I could not give “milkies” to the 11 year old boy that was crying... “milkies” is what she says when she wants to breastfeed 😂)
WOW, this is adorable. So much empathy there! And LOL re: the breastfeeding.
Wow! That kind of emotional awareness is beautiful!! My daughter is about the same age and now I am looking forward to seeing her develop empathy, thanks for sharing.
My 3.5 year old doesn't like wearing clothes at home. We don't mind that he's just in underwear with us, but it's been a struggle sometimes to get him to understand that he needs to wear clothes when guests come over. At Target the other day I found some velour pants in the boys' section and bought them for him because I know he likes soft fabrics. After I showed him the new pants, unprompted he told me that he loves them, doesn't want to get them dirty by wearing them outside and that these will be his "guest pants" from now on. He's finally accepted that we wear clothes for guests and designated pants for this!
Amazing! I want velour house pants, too!
My daughter is 10 and she recently had a little friend drama. We talked about it, I validated her feelings and helped her think about how she wanted to handle it, she got teary, and when we were done she actually said "Thanks mom, I feel better! I'm lucky you're a therapist so you know how to help me!" I recognize that in a few years she might be mad at me when I offer support and tell me not to "therapize" her but I'm glad right now she thinks I'm helpful.
That's lovely. There's something about when our kids thank us for things like this.... you know they really mean it. It's never performative.
A sleepy cuddle with my 4 year old this morning was just pure sensory delight. He was just out of bed so he was toasty warm with fleecy pjs on and he smelled delicious and fit perfectly in my lap. I was just enjoying it so much especially because his older brother who is only 6 is already so tall and doesn’t fit on my knee in that same way so I was really aware that I wont always have those same cuddles!
I feel closer to my partner since we've had our baby last spring. Taking care of our kid together has been such a great time of being and learning together.
Weird example -- he figured out breast pumps (which one to get, how all the settings work, how to manage all the little parts) and I got to sit down and be like, "ugh, what do I do next?" -- he had all the answers but was so chill about how he provided them. More importantly, we've seen each others' tiredest, grumpiest selves and have learned how to forgive in those moments.
Not to mention the times we wake up at 3am to a cooing, flailing infant and are both like, "wow, I love this baby so much right now."
“Let’s get naked & dance friends!”My 3y/o pre-bath with her 1 y/o brother & pretend pals, pure joy & naked dances...of course until bro steals the pink pig bath toy lol.
I was getting dressed upstairs while my two older boys were eating breakfast. Meanwhile, my 18 month old woke up and I decided I would get her after I finished getting dressed. 10 minutes later, i went to get her and saw she was not in her crib. The boys had gently taken her out of her crib and carefully walked her down the stairs. When I came down, she was sitting at the table, with a bib on, eating a toasted frozen waffle. I was so grateful to them for being such amazing and caring brothers to their younger sister and I was also so grateful to them for really helping me out when I was feeling overwhelmed and rushed to get everyone out the door on time. KIDS ARE AMAZING!
This is ❤️❤️❤️