The claret of growth

Watching and leading our girls development is inspiring.

It’s inspiring to watch them learn and grow, and inspiring us as parents to always have new answers and explanations for each interaction.

Over the weekend, the learning was about climbing trees better and jumping off the swing set for a dismount.

Both come with inherent scrapes and bruises as part of the process of mastery.

Some days the girls shrug those setbacks off themselves, and sometimes they need a little encouraging. These are the moments where we as parents can get our own encouraging nudge.

Learning what to say to them in these instances quite regularly re-educates me on skill acquisition for myself.

We all know that anything we want to master comes with its own set of scrapes and bruises but often find ourselves shying away from these moments as we age.

We start to find more and more excuses for why we can’t pursue new experiences rather than building the ability to fight through the claret.

Funnily enough, kids don’t think of it as “battling through”, they just do it for the sake of doing it. For the pure, primal attraction to the skill gain on the other side.

If there’s one thing I am convinced of as a parent, it’s to not take away my girls chances of scrapes and bruises, in whatever form they may come.

It’s a fundamental ability that they need to develop for success through the rest of their lives.

Lesson two is that I need to keep adding my own scrapes and bruises just for the sake of it. My own success depends on it.

Thanks girls.

Dice

Inspired Lion