Grow up

Sometimes you hear yourself say something before you realize what you said.

I really want my daughter to grow up at a normal pace. In fact my wife and me belong to that set of parents that worry that our daughter would grow up too soon and leave us. We won’t get to love her enough.

Still, this is what I hear myself say:

Me: “Grow up!”

Daughter: “How?”

Me: “Just stop behaving like a baby”

Now like I said, I’m in no hurry for her to grow up. She’ll grow up when she will. But I thought these were great words to learn from myself.

Then I got thinking about another tale that we tell her. Whenever she falls down, slips, bites a lip, or finds one of innumerable ways to hurt herself, we tell her, never mind, when you get hurt you grow up a little.

What I realized is that these are really the only two ways that I “grew”. One, when I got hurt. Two, when I found myself in a spot where I decided to stop behaving like a baby.

Take your time honey. There are enough grown ups in this house for now. We grew up a little when we had you and decided it was time to act like parents. We grew up a little so we can protect you from some of the hurt that the world has to offer, so you can take your time.