I never wanted E to be timid or afraid of life. So I’ve tried hard not to hover over him, and let him explore on his own. I’m aware that means he may get hurt from time to time in situations that I could have prevented, but the goal is/was to make him independent and confident. That’s what we’re supposed to do as parents, right?
Whelp, maybe I should have held on to a bit of that timidness. Because the kid has none. No fear, no hesitation. Just go go go. It’s going to be fun when he’s a bit older and wants to go to the amusement park or haunted house with me, but for now I’ll just be over here having a heart attack while my one year old throws himself off the tallest slide at the playground head first.
Yup.
Forget the toddler slides. Forget going down on your butt while holding on to the edge. This kid loves the big, tall slides. He loves going down backwards, or face first or just throwing himself down as fast as he can. Whether someone is at the bottom ready to catch him or not.
Same thing with stairs. He’s decided going down on his bottom or backwards is not for him. He’s going to walk down them like a big person, whether he’s tall enough or not (he’s not).
I don’t think I had that same outlook as a kid. I wasn’t totally timid, and I loved amusement parks, but I’d say I had a good level of caution. I never ended up in the ER or hospital, never had stitches, pretty much stayed in one piece. (Although I did have my share of face first trips down the stairs).
With E, though, I feel like I’m just counting down until my first broken bone with him. Good thing he likes his milk??
