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Return to innocence

And she looks at me with puppy-dog eyes. How do you discipline such a child? My child had just poured a large amount of my lotion into the water container. And like any child her age, without a rationale. *sigh*

Now, as a parent, I try to move more towards the verbal form of discipline, where I explain to my little one why she should not do certain things, rather than the rod. Although the rod is still very good as it keeps a child in check. Remember,'spare the rod and spoil the child.'

Children.*gush*. The innocence. Their wild imaginations and miscellaneous mischief, mostly impulsive. I think that almost every parent has two nightmares, either a)they find the house turned into a circus or jungle with broken glasses, furniture, gadgets, etc, or b)the worst. Their child is taken to hospital for a broken bone, or, two, or worse. (Okay. I will stop right there. I do not want to get all y'all parents paranoid or having heart attacks).

Talking about heart attacks, I almost had one at my young age, at one point. Via whatsapp, whilst I was at work, I receive an image of my then, four year-old,at the top, (I still always wonder how she got all the way up there), of the barb-wired gate at home. Now, the individual responsible for taking the photo, and sending the image, was going to get a piece of my mind ,but my bigger concern was that if my little one was fine.

Yes, the little munchkin was fine. She just wanted to go out and play with her friend. (But that just brought a certain paranoia of what sort of teenager that I am going to have). And it is not funny. But there is a lesson that I learnt from all this. Do not get frustrated,get motivated. You see,the gate was locked. My daughter wanted to play with her friend. Her plan. Go up, and out, and down the gate. (Prison break).

Children do a lot of things out of innocence, (except for teenagers), however,there are a lot of life lessons we 'grown ups' could take from children. I remember when I first became environmentally conscious, after watching the animation, 'Captain Planet'. My litter is, to date, thrown into a bin, and I 'try' to plant a tree, at least once a year, (not necessarily tree planting day). I learnt to accept people different from me thanks to 'X-Men'. And thanks to my daddy's belting, (umm, I was not at all a naughty child), I can proudly say that I am a decent adult.

My point. Children's innocence makes the world a better place. My nephew sees himself as 'Superman', so he can save the world. From my daughter, I am always learning faith, love and forgiveness.

Maybe as adults we all could take notes from children's handbooks. How many of us have disciplined our children, yet they come back to us, smiling, laughing, because they would have forgotten. Yet as adults we struggle to forgive, yet still,forget.

How many of us have lost faith,given up on things, yet children continue trying until something works. And they continuously hold onto those promises even if it does not happen immediately. That is faith. (And I owe my baby a bike).

And love. Children exude love. I have a niece who speaks Zulu and my daughter is a Shona speaker, yet in their differences they play together, and get up to no good, together. My little one often asks if she can share her toys,or food with her friends. Generosity. And at times, even when too busy, maybe not giving much, the words 'I love you', still come out from those precious lips.

And grown ups. We get too wrapped up in selfishness, hurts, competitiveness, egos, pride, that we forget the true meaning of love.

Maybe it is time to return to the days where the world was perfect. The only worry, was having ice-cream after finishing a meal, where that different individual from you was the most fascinating thing that you have seen,increasing your curiosity. Where all we wanted to do is play,and play. And when it was time to sleep, it was amazing, because you looked forward to dreaming of being great.

Children are more than just innocent, they are wise. Maybe you and I should return to that innocence.

P.S: Always write your own love story.

Ciao!

Lady E

Copyright[c] MPV by Lady E All Rights Reserved 2013

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