Independence

Panda Girl is our independent child. She has always been short. Lately, she has grown enough to discover a whole new world: climbing. It started innocently enough with the couch. Instead of chasing her off, I made sure she knew the Rules of the Couch: no standing, no walking, get down on your tummy and go feet first. She quickly learned to (mostly) follow those rules. Thus, a new love of climbing was born. She has now mastered going down the stairs (much scarier than going up) and her step stool. The step stool still scares me, but she is getting better with it. I just worry that this new found independence will cause injury.

I was not an independent child. So, my parents diligently went about fixing that problem. Let's face it, a five year old who asks for help with a simple task is annoying. The problem with this "fixing" is that it was pushed a bit too hard (or, probably more accurately, I took this lesson way too far). Thus, I. HATE. ASKING. FOR. HELP.

As I have discussed before, this is not a good trait. So, I am trying to break the cycle. I am still learning how to balance my desire for my girls to be independent, while allowing them the freedom to ask for help. I don't want their desire to be independent to cause them to fall flat on their little faces too often. However, I don't want to hover too much. They need to learn to fall and pick themselves back up.