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Gentle Parenting Month 9

   Written by on May 29, 2015 at 11:09 am

How are you doing on your goal of becoming a gentler parent?  Have you put the previous 8 steps into practice?  Are you still working on the first one?  Have you clipped and saved the articles with the intention of getting started…this month?

logo-wee-notesLet me assure you that it’s never too late to begin.  Maybe you even worked on several steps but haven’t gotten to the next one.  The important thing is that you care enough about your wee one that you are committed to becoming the best parent you can be.

This month, we will discuss the importance of laughter in the life of our child…and ourselves.  That’s right, good old-fashioned belly laughs are good for the soul.  L.R. Knost, tells us not to forget our funny bone.  It’s easy to become so involved with the concerns of behavior, or MIS-behavior, in our child that we forget the importance of having fun on a daily basis.

You don’t need to do a lot of planning in order to have a laugh fest.  I recall with my own three, as well as in my home-based preschool day care, visits from the “Tickle Bug”.  He consisted of my thumb and index finger opening and closing.  At appropriate times, I would say, “Here comes the tickle bug”.  Those five words would immediately set off squeals of joy and laughter.  The tickle bug would nibble on the neck, tummy, back, or behind the knees.

Another game we would play was making up silly rhyming words.  Better, fetter, wetter, getter, letter, and so on.  Dilly, willy, nilly, silly, gilly.  Funny, bunny, lunny, zunny, etc. Notice that some of the rhyming words aren’t even words.  It doesn’t matter.  The child is learning about rhyming and is enjoying the fun of laughing at the nonsensical words she made up.

Ms. Knost reminds us that G. Mistral said, “Many things we need can wait. The child cannot.  Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed.  To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.”  Isn’t that wonderful to consider? L.R. Knost points out, and rightly so, that we sometimes focus so much on preparing our children for their future that we forget to let them live in the present, and that children by their very nature, are creatures of the ‘now,’ living fully immersed in each present moment.

If you are having a day that is definitely not one you consider a “good” one, try a bit of humor.  Chase your wee one across the floor.  Make funny faces until you and your child are cracking up laughing.  Sing a silly song.  Make up your own silly song.  Just begin laughing and enjoy what follows.

Have a wonderful, laughter-filled week and month.  Happy gentle parenting.

© 2015 Brenda Holland-Robinson

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