Kwasi said this allll day yesterday at daycare......when his shoes fell off.....when he needed or wanted to do anything....he called out to everyone in the daycare, "Help me, Samuel! Help me, Bryce! Help me, Marilyn!"
Where did this come from?
So when I walked into daycare yesterday, Kwabi was on the floor near the door, in tears because Miss Marilyn was making him put on his own shoes; teaching him, rather.
And it was then that I realized that Kwabena IS spoiled (or, as I have always called, he's just "well loved"). LOL
But seriously... I realized that there are things Kwabi should be able to do on his own, and given the opportunity to do...such as putting on his shoes, dressing himself, undressing himself, brushing his teeth, etc. For so long, I have done these things because he was too young to do it himself, or too young to do it "right" (e.g. brushing his teeth), that I have just DONE IT, and have KEPT doing it.
But he's 2 years old now. And when I ask him to pull on his own pants, for example, he resigns to, "I can't do it," at which point I show him how to do it, and then praise him for doing a majority of it himself. He will then exclaim, "I did it!!"
Am I going to be making excuses for what Kwabena can and cannot do when he is 5 years old? 10 years old? "Oh, Kwabena can't do THAT....he's only 15 years old!" and "Well, Kwabena can't do that....he's only 23 years old...."
These experiences are just reminders to me that part of parenting is giving your child opportunities for independence, granted that they are truly ready and able to do something. Even using "age" as a determining factor is faulty, because no child is "textbook." It's about challenging your child; letting them explore and learn, and knowing when they are ready for more responsibility and when they are not.
It's a fine line, and as moms we have to always evaluate how much our kids can truly handle, without automatically assuming that they can't do something because they are ___[insert excuse here]___.
If we make excuses for our kids that really hold no weight, without giving them the opportunity, then we aren't helping them to be independent and reach their full potential.