How To Really Love A Child

How To Really Love A child

Be there. Say YES as often as possible. Let them bang on pots and pans.

If they're crabby, put them in water. If they're unlovable, love yourself.

Realize how important it is to be a CHILD. Go to a movie theatre in your pajamas.

READ books out loud with JOY. INVENT pleasures together. Remember how small they are. 

GIGGLE A LOT. Surprise them. Say no when necessary. TEACH feeling. Heal your own

inner child. LEARN about parenting. HUG trees together. MAKE LOVING SAFE. Bake a 

cake and eat it with no hands. Go find elephants and kiss them. Plan to BUILD a

rocketship. IMAGINE yourself MAGIC. Make lots of forts with blankets. Let your

angel fly. Reveal your own DREAMS. Search out the POSITIVE. Keep the gleam in

your eye. Mail letters to GOD. Encourage SILLY. Plant licorice in your garden. Open up.

STOP yelling. Express your LOVE a lot. Speak kindly. Paint their tennis shoes. Handle with

CARING. Children ARE miraculous.

by SARK

Today I was browsing through my emails and cam across this poem.  I think that every parent needs to have this hanging up.    If you would like to see the full story go to http://www.blogbydonna.com/post/2011/12/My-Reminder-How-to-Really-Love-a-Child.aspx#comment.

I am so glad that I have listened to that inner voice and did things for my children as they were small.  Now, that they are teenagers and adults raising their own, I still find myself wishing at times that they were small again.

One of the things that I remember growing up as a child was how my Mother took care of my Keds.  After washing them in the washing machine, she would take them out and polish them.  Yes, she would take white shoe polish and cover them with the polish.  Then she would set them aside to dry and then the next time I wore them, they would be white again.  I always wore white ones and even as I grew to an adult, I still enjoy the white ones.  But now, I get the leather ones.

Can you find one thing in the poem above that takes you back to your childhood?  I would love to hear from you.