writingwahm

It’s amazing when you start to realise that your baby isn’t a baby any more. Of course, I realised that some time ago. My ‘baby’ is five years old, in school and has an impressive range of extra curricular activities. But there’s more to growing up than reaching these social milestones. There’s also a lot of internal development going on, where suddenly your child will take a big leap.

For example, last week when she turned five and a half, she said to her dad: I don’t mind if I don’t get a present. Never did I think I would hear those words. I’m still scarred by the memory of the party where the loot bags didn’t come up to scratch and there was an unpleasant (though mercifully short) scene.

Then, the other day, she asked me to plait her hair. (The background to this is that her hair is short and curly, so the plaits don’t always look as they should, besides which I have never been a hair person.) I said that I would, but I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. She said: Mummy, if you do your best that will be fine with me.  You could have knocked me down with a feather.  How do you chart your children’s emotional development?

Trackback URI | Comments RSS