Every day, a new development. Today after work husband and I were talking as we helped baby play on her slide in the yard. Suddenly she started crying. We asked what’s wrong and she cried harder. We guessed, “Did you want dada to play with you?” “Yeah!!” she sobbed. We both picked her up and hugged her and talked about what she was feeling: “You must be feeling sad and angry!” “Yeah!!!” “You want mama and dada to play with you, don’t you?” “Yeah!!!”
So we hugged her and talked with her and comforted her, then we set about playing properly with our daughter: no extraneous conversation; looking her in the eyes; talking with her; responding to her conversation.
It was really amazing to see this happen. It was a stark reminder to us about how important parents are to their children, and how they know what we are doing. They know if we’re paying attention to them or not. They know they need to reconnect with us after a long day. If we are open, they will tell us. I’m grateful our girl is able to tell us so clearly what she wants, and that she is confident enough to demand it from us. How sad if she didn’t trust us to meet her needs, so never asked!
Being there for our girl when she needs us is truly one of the biggest privileges for us as parents.