Anyway,
Since I last updated the family and I took a vacation to Kitty Hawk, NC. The weather was as fabulous as the company and we had a blast. It's hard for me to conceptualize just how lucky I am to have such a good job with such great perks. Here's a picture of just how nice it was:
Recently I have been having a bit of trouble with the smallest, aka N. We have been having power struggles and attitude adjustments constantly. It gets frustrating but I feel that I am learning as I go and some progress is being made daily. Today she let me braid her hair! A first!
Today's lesson, therefore, is patience and the acceptance of change:
We as a culture are used to having everything we want, whenever we want. Instant gratification is our middle name. Whatever happened to the days when we actually prepared our food (yes, it took longer than five minutes!) or waited for a letter to arrive (instead of instant email)? I have caught myself lacking patience and looking for instant gratification more and more recently. I however, am not the only sufferer, it seems that N also lacks patience. We have trouble throughout the day waiting for things to dry or waiting for mealtimes. Is this something the newest generation is going to expect? Instant gratification? I'd like to reintroduce patience and time into my life. But I am not sure how, any suggestions (oh so patient followers)?
The second topic of today's lesson is change. Change happens all the time, and sometimes it is not always a positive change. N has a very hard time with this, but then, looking at my life I can see that there is room for improvement in me too. I have been thinking long about this and I think a good technique (that I have recently learned) is that every time one has anxiety about either a fear of change to take a couple seconds, and breathe in and out and think "Ok, this change isn't going to end my world. I'm going to continue living no matter what happens today". I wonder if I can get a six year old to do this? It will probably require a lot of patience!
So what's on the Virginia nanny's plate in the near future? Next week the family and I will be going to NY state (with a couple of surprises!) and a friend from far far away will be coming back to Virginia for a couple of days, so that is really exciting!
So,
What's on your plate for the 4th of July?
What do you need to be more patient with?
Sincerely,
The Virginia Nanny
I agree that your suggestion of breathing in and out is a good one, and one that you can employ with N. When she gets into a power struggle, ask her to stop and breathe deeply a couple of times and see if that can refocus things. It's worth a try, at least. :)
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