Hello Tired Troopers,
My hubby and I were both raised being treated as little humans, not babies (as in we weren’t babied). Which is exactly how we want to raise our children. It seems to be more and more common these days. Back when, parents and children had a very distinct line drawn between them. Almost as if the parents had their lives and the children had their lives. There wasn’t much overlap between the two. At least not like today’s standards.
Now we engage our kids and talk to them like little people. We understand kids are pure potential not just dumb little lumps we have to keep alive. We know that kids are much, much smarter than we could ever realize. And parents seem to have jumped on board with nurturing their kids learning potential with a hands on approach.
Shoot, nowadays there are like 50,000 different “parenting styles” which is nuts when you think about how different it was even 50 years ago! Everyone is out here doing their best, and I’m not going to put one parenting style over another cause it depends on the parent and the child, their relationship, how they communicate, learn, grow, shoot it even comes down to what the specific situation calls for sometimes!
But the most important aspect to treating them like little humans and having them rise to the expectation is trust. Trust is hands down the most important foundation you can lay for your child. Without trust there can’t be any respect. Trust and respect go hand in hand and it is a 2 way street. You gaining your child’s trust and respect will in turn teach your child how to earn your trust and respect.
Once that solid foundation of trust and respect is established and maintained the sky is the limit! Their potential is infinite and as long as you are always there maintaining that foundation whilst learning and evolving with them your child and your relationship with your child will be the absolute best you can make it!
It can’t ever start too early either! My babies were in the womb when I started and I continued when they came out! Yes, we still treat them like babies, hello?! They’re infants! But alongside the “baby talk” we truly talk to them. Having twins and only 2 hands, sometimes I have to put one kid down cause the other is crying. So I literally say, “Ok, your sister needs me, I’m going to put you down for just a little bit, you’ll be ok.” Or if I just can’t get to the kid who is fussing, I’ll literally say, “Hey, it’s ok, just hold on baby I’ll be right back.” I don’t know if it’s keeping my cool (which is super hard to do when you have fussing kids) or if it’s how I say it, or what I say, or that I’m following through therefore gaining my babies trust or a combo of everything, but I swear it is already working!!! I’m gaining my babies trust by treating them like little humans and they are rising to the expectation! It’s an amazing thing to witness and be a part of! 🥰