Anyone with a burgeoning toddler will tell you it’s an exhausting time. It’s a whirlwind. Everyone will tell you that when you have a baby time flies... you blink and they’re grown. So what’s this business about going slow?

In today’s world, we’ve become accustomed to a fast pace of life. Everything seems to be about efficiency. Instant gratification. Give me more. I want it now. Produce. Consume. Repeat. Faster and faster. We overfill everything. Our calendars. Our plates. Our shopping carts. Our children. Yes, when it comes to our children, overflow often happens. It comes from a good place, but it’s not necessarily a good thing.

Leaving time and space for our children is so important. It gives them access to experience, learning, and movement that you just can’t plan for. In this photo, Bruce has a spoon, which he is tapping on the hand rail. He carried it around all morning after he’d finished breakfast. What if I’d rushed through cleanup and pried it away from him when he showed me that he wanted to keep it? Maybe tears, maybe resistance. And then maybe some activity or distraction I would have suggested after the fact.

Instead, after breakfast, as I prepared to clean up, I slowed down. I tuned in to Bruce and decided I could definitely give him what he wanted- that little spoon. And even more importantly, I slowed down enough to let him use it for as long as he wanted, in the ways he wanted. Bruce happily carried that spoon around with him, tapping things with it, sliding it into openings he found, and using it to “feed” the dogs.

It was a lovely morning. It was a slow morning. We need more of those and so do our babies. Do everyone a favor and S L O W D O W N.

Melt into your life.

I promise, it’s worth it and there is magic waiting there.