Timothy loves to be in the kitchen with me. This is a good thing, because we spend a lot of time in there. He particularly likes the appliances that move and make noise. Actually, I say that, but he loves pots and pans, flour, whisks and spatulas, watching things cook on the stove, you name it. He really enjoys when we make bread as many of these elements come together. He pulls fistfuls of flour out of my bowl, attempts to pull himself up on the mixer, and helps me knead the dough as you can see from the above picture.
I know that I really have very little say about who Timothy turns out to be--what his personality is, what he likes to do--but I wonder how much our daily activities will impact him. I don't want to pressure Timmy to be anything beyond respectful and hard-working, but will he love to bake because we spend so much time together baking? I can't help but hope so. Don't we all want to see a piece of ourselves in our children? It'll be fun to see who our determined little boy turns into--we certainly catch glimpses of his developing personality. I think we are going to have our hands full, whatever he ends up liking!
2 comments:
It's funny that you talk about how Timothy develops because a friend and i were just talking about this like an hour ago. My friend read this book or article or something comparing French parenting to American parenting. The author says that Americans see their children as a seed they have planted. They are not sure what kind of seed it is, and they wait to see what will come up. They feel a sense of joyful anticipation seeing what will become of the seed. french parents, say: no, we planted a carrot. A carrot will come up and we will raise a carrot. In the end, the author claims that French family's are closer because there is this common bond (of being French...the idea of the carrot is "a good French citizen") and the children are more similar to the parents. I don't think she was judging either one, but merely pointing out the difference to each group.
I guess I don't really know about your experience with French culture. Is most of your knowledge of French language based or formed through French-Canadian culture or even the language itself? Do you have any understanding of French culture as it pertains to parenting to think one thing or another about this author's comments?
I really want Andrew to be kind and reflective. That is so important to me. But, he's not. Not yet. Well, sometimes there are glimmers of kindness in his self-absorbed toddler-hood.
Dang I love that kid.
I think I am actually more in the French corner. Although there are certainly people I know who are nothing like their parents, we do follow in their footsteps for the most part.
My francophone cultural knowledge is mostly of France, although my focus throughout school was definitely language and literature based. I would say the carrot analogy is certainly true, however.
Toddlers are not designed to be kind and reflective in the ways we might first think of, I don't think. There are lots of stages to go through first to really understand what those characteristics mean. Gosh, teenagers are still self-absorbed, even though they might have a few more glimmers of kindness and reflection than a two year old!
So anyway, I know the basics of who our little guy is going to be, but I know there's a lot to discover about his personality.
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