… and that’s always a dangerous thing.
Lots of general musings about life and the world and how I would ideally like things to be.
Having Rowan has really really made me consider things that had previously been unimportant to me, or ignorable. You can see evidence of this in my new interest in environmentally friendly things. While this thinking has left some big crazy ideas floating around in my head, in that direction I’m trying to take things slowly to prove to myself that I can keep up the changes we are making and that its not just a big fad – which I am prone to! (I’m ignoring the worries that the little I can do won’t make any difference to the big picture. I’m trying a bit of ‘Do as I do’ rather than ‘Do as I say’)
Anyway, I also read parenting books – mostly ‘alternative’ type ones and that makes me question the assumptions about bringing up kids – sometimes pretty substantial ones – that I had before a real life child appeared. I’m beginning to be able to consider different ways of doing things, questioning the ways I have settled into or will wander into as Rowan gets older.
As I’m trying to do more around the house and cook more from scratch I’m finding it hard to get stuff done – except while Rowan is asleep – as he doesn’t like me to be out in the kitchen. He’s happy playing on his own a lot of the time (so long as he’s not bored/tired etc) but as soon as I go in the kitchen (unless the TV is on) he’s in there, wanting to be picked up etc. I’ve tried convincing him to play in the safe half of the kitchen but he wants to have his hands in what I’m doing (or to take me away from it) which is a bad thing when I’m trying to cook.
I am going to try to see if it is just interest, and try some baking with him, but I’m not sure how to include him in the other things like chopping veg and washing up – at least not at his age. I want him to learn, early, that these are normal things to do and life’s not all about toy cars and stacking cups and 24hr attention. I want him to know that I am there but that sometimes I need to do other things. It’s a challenge but it’s increasingly important to me that I at least try to do things in the way I think is right. Small changes to our routine, but working towards the fuzzy ideas that are started to take shape in my brain about how we should be living.