RECKLESS ABANDON

For the most part, children are oblivious to how they look. They can be wearing two different shoes or mismatched socks and, unlike adults, they will not stress over such minor details. When they dress themselves, they are not concerned so much about coordinating colours - almost any combination of colour and pattern will do. When they have lost their front teeth, children will continue to smile and will even go around showing everyone how they have lost a tooth.

Today was such the case when Cinnamon wanted me to photograph her newly lost front tooth and the one next to it which is now loose. She smiled a big smile as I made the photograph of her sitting on her bed as she held onto her Elsa doll and the stuffed white bunny. I wonder if she will lose the tooth before I see her again next Friday.

With reckless abandon, children explore the world around them. One minute they are drawing a colourful picture in a corner of the room whilst the next minute they can be seen running around in an attempt to find another toy with which to play. We observe how happy they are to be without a care in the world. No responsibilities other than to learn how to cope with the influx of information being thrown at them - particularly at school.

We might wonder how we would fare in life if we went around experiencing it as children do. The episode of 'Friends' where Phoebe runs in the park with Rachel comes to mind. Rachel comes up with an excuse as to why she cannot run with Phoebe when she sees Phoebe running as a child with arms flailing about. After Phoebe explains to her how fun it is to run like that, Rachel decides to try it and exclaims 'You're right, this feels great!'...until she runs into a policeman's horse, that is.

Perhaps if we worry less and smile more when something unpleasant came along, we would be able to deal with the situation better. Stress less, worry less, laugh more, and take each minute of every day as it comes. We cannot control every situation, but we can control our reaction to it. Sometimes we need to step back and observe our children as we can learn a valuable lesson from them instead of always insisting they follow our every lead.