As a mum of a teen and tween I have started using the dreaded clich\u00e9 \u201cthey grow up so fast\u201d. I can be out somewhere and see a toddler messily devouring a rapidly melting ice cream and I have a vague flashback to when my two were little and think \u201cthey grow up so fast.\u201d Sometimes it can be triggered by something as simple as my 11 year old using a complex word and hubby and I recall that cute phase when she would say \u201cnicnic\u201d instead of \u201cpicnic\u201d.<\/p>\n
Well, I know most parents of young kids are knee deep in nappies and parenting advice overload as you navigate the terrible twos, threes, fours and more \u2013 but here are a few tips to avoid having \u201cthey grow up so fast\u201d regrets:<\/p>\n
We\u2019re the home-based paparazzi – documenting the momentous and super-cute milestones of our kids \u2013 first roll, crawling, walking, first day of school. That\u2019s great, but every once in a while take a video or pic of your little one just having a normal day and doing normal stuff like gurgling and drinking their bedtime bottle of milk or chatting with dad or following their older sibling around. Believe me, as they grow, some memories tend to fade a bit and the little videos are great reminders plus the kids love seeing themselves as toddlers.<\/p>\n
Also, ask someone to take pics of yourself with your kids or take selfies with them. A lot of parents document their child\u2019s life meticulously but when looking back on it, their parent-person hardly features in the pics and videos. (NB. Save the videos and pics on an external hard drive or on your FB account and make it private so that you can have a back-up in case you lose the pics\/videos.)<\/p>\n
Remember that time you envisioned yourself keeping a detailed memory box for your child documenting their life highlights \u2013 first tooth that fell out, first lock of hair cut, preschool graduation certificate\u2026.and then somehow they\u2019re suddenly 10-years-old and you have no idea where that customised memory box is after last seeing it a year after your angel was born.<\/p>\n
Take \u201cabout me\u201d videos annually (you can make it a December holiday tradition) \u2013 you are their biggest fan after all!\u00a0 Start doing it from the time they can speak (even if it\u2019s going to sound like gibberish the first 2 years). Ask questions about their favourites : food, colour, game, friend, tv show, toy \u2013 and throw in a few random questions like:<\/p>\n
Give them time to expand on their answers so that their personalities come through. Looking back on my kids\u2019 videos, I love seeing how they have grown and how their personalities were already in full force even in toddlerhood.<\/p>\n
Make or buy a height ruler<\/a> \u2013 put a 6 monthly reminder on your phone to measure their height and remember to include the date and their age on the ruler\/chart. It\u2019s especially fun for siblings to compare heights at the same age and the look of glee on their faces as they catch-up to mum\/dad\u2019s height. My 13-year-old is a full 15cm taller than me.<\/p>\n Also, as they outgrow clothing at super flash-like rates,\u00a0 save that tiny, cute onesie and pair of socks or that cute, tattered blankie that accompanied your child everywhere at one stage.<\/p>\n Finally, it\u2019s so important to practice mindfulness when you\u2019re with your kids. When you pick them up from school or cr\u00e8che, turn the radio off as you drive, press pause on thoughts of the terrible day you had at work, or how much laundry you still have to sort out or what you\u2019re going to cook for supper. Just give your little one your undivided attention.<\/p>\n These little pockets of time mean so much and creates an invaluable connection with your kids which helps prevent a disconnect as they enter that inevitable, scary, hormonal, teen angst stage of life. If you take time to speak with them now, they will want to speak with you later.<\/p>\n Review of Tech-Savvy Parenting: A Guide to Raising Safe Children in a Digital World. Read here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n As a mum of a teen and tween I have started using the dreaded clich\u00e9 \u201cthey grow up so fast\u201d. I can be out somewhere and see a toddler messily devouring a rapidly melting ice cream and I have a vague flashback to when my two were little and think \u201cthey grow up so fast.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":357588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,853],"tags":[1037,1038],"class_list":["post-357584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-present","category-parenting","tag-family-memories","tag-family-time"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}4. Practice Mindfulness<\/h3>\n
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