Letting Go

It's true that our kids teach us things about the world.  It's even more true that they teach us about ourselves.  Growing and changing as a person, and parent, is one of the great things about having kids.  Here's what I learned about myself today.  I am a bit of a control freak.  Knowing it is half the battle, right?

I got Isaac painting today.  He was really interested in painting a dinosaur (surprise!).  So I got out all the paints, covered all the areas with paper, and got the brushes and water.  I was ready to see a masterpiece unfold before my very eyes.  Instead, Isaac started to dip his brush in every color and then smear the grayish-brown paint all over.  I flipped!  I can still hear myself saying to him,"Not every color at once!  One at a time!".  But I immediately caught myself and thought, "Why not every color all together?  What's so wrong with what he's doing?".  So I changed my tone and instead told him to experiment any way that he wanted.  Today Isaac taught me that I have to let go.  There's a time for play and a time for instruction.  When getting him started on something that may not ultimately be "his thing", I have to remember to create good memories with the activity at hand.  Makes sense, right?  Why would you ever want to paint again if your nagging mother is just going to tell you how to do it?  Art, especially, has no right or wrong way.  Part of the creative process is just letting them do it, letting them find their way through it, in order to express themselves.

And I've known about this perfectionist side that I harbor deep within me.  And I've been taking steps to just let it go.  I no longer nit-pick my various creative projects to death.  I don't worry about sticky sucker getting all up in my little girl's locks.  So what if Isaac wears two different shoes, both on the wrong feet, to the grocery store.  Life is more enjoyable if instead of finding all its faults, we look for all the beautiful things about it.

And a side note, about dinosaurs (of course).  Did you know that some states have state dinosaurs?  I learned this today, and upon further investigation learned that a few states have state dinosaurs, but more have state fossils.  Not all the fossils are dinosaurs, but all are equally interesting (in my opinion).