The power of eye contact is, I think, widely under realized. As the parent of two kids (and a former, some would say still current child myself) I have long recognized the power of "the look"!
It is the visual embodiment of hearing your entire name screamed from down the hall. It is what a parent pulls out when you have lost your mind but are right there in the room.
We all know the power of the Oh-No-You-Didn't look. We were all kids once and we all did stupid things that we should be grateful to our parents for not killing us for.
But, that is not the eye contact that I am talking about here. I have long known that one of the most important things to have for your children is compassion. The ability to get down on their level and see the world from their little 2.5 feet tall perspective. Physically speaking, both my husband and I try to do this with our kids. We were much better at it with Ella, mostly due to the 2:1 ratio. Now that we are in the man to man defense mode of parenting, its a little tougher, but no less important.
Last night I was responsible for picking up both kids and was running a little hectic at home trying to get dinner (I actually cooked!) on the table. Max has a 30 minute window typically wherein if he doesn't ingest food it will not be pretty. The 5:30-6:00 pm range is critical. So I am boiling the water and heating the sauce and feeding the dog and helping with the homework all while thinking surely Hung will be home any second and Max I think was feeling a little lost in the shuffle. He started to crank up. A bit early. It was only 5:15 and all my usual bag of tricks were not working. You want juice? NO. You want crackers? Usually greeted by a loud, enthusiastic "CrackA", all I got was a frowny face and a foot stomp. A car? Usually my ACE IN THE HOLE, a defiant NO!
He keeps looking at the stove. So I know he's hungry. And the prospect that I have actually cooked a hot meal for him is perhaps more than his little brain can handle. He keeps walking up to me saying, "mama" and I say "yes" and he says "ummmmmm." So I stopped what I was doing and I got down with him face to face, and he looks at me and steps forward and melts into a little hug.
And then all was right with the world. He ate 2 times what his sister did for dinner by the way. He likes mama's pasta.
2 comments:
That put a huge smile on my face! :)
Max is a cute one. There is much love in your household.
I am still shocked at the fact that the stove was turned on for a reason other then making sure it still works!
haha just kiddinggggg.
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