Tuesday, April 3, 2012

BMWB #14 Capable vs Convenient

We have suddenly made a huge leap forward. One little man tried to ride with his training wheels off on Sunday and he was off.
This afternoon the sun was shining and so I said if he wanted to he could bike all the way (1.5km) to school and I would ride Flip's scooter. And.He.Did.It - major moment of parental pride. This little guy only had his training wheels off yesterday.

Which leads me to my 'becoming the mama I want to be' thought. From what I have read it is incredibly important for our boys to develop a sense of their own capability early in life. The kind of internal self talk that says 'I am someone who can learn things, I can solve this problem, Yes I have made a mistake but I can think of ways to sort it out'.

The temptation so often in parenting is to choose the convenient, quicker, easier way to do things (like take the car, or put him on the back of the bike) and while there are times for this I want to choose as often as I can, to make my boys feel like competent, capable people. Boys who CAN.

In the afternoon Flip said (20minutes before tea) 'Can we do some glitter work?' and I said no (because I couldn't be bothered with the mess) and then I thought about writing this post and becoming the kind of mama I want my boys to remember and I said, 'Actually that sounds fun, let's do that'.

And we had fun.
This year I am making more of a conscious effort to have quality moments with my boys. B.M.W.B (becoming the mama I want to be)  is my way of recording and hopefully inspiring other mama’s too. Please inspire me with the little moments you are snatching with your little people OR with ideas I could do with mine. If you have blogged about it please leave a comment so we can all visit and encourage each other.
 
Simple. Intentional. Achievable: becoming the mama I want to be.

These are the boys I love, friends and brothers - may they always be so.
 
What lessons are you trying to learn this year?