I know what you are thinking...OF COURSE I think my kids are smart. It's like the ugly kid rule...if your kid is ugly you probably don't know it right because you love your kids no matter what. Well, my kids really ARE smarter than me and not in a good way...not good for my ego anyway.
I remember the first time I saw Jeff Foxworthy on that show "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" and I thought of course I am. I should be right? Theoretically I have a college degree so by default I should be smarter than a 5th grader. I went all the way through 16th grade for crying out loud.
Well this past year as I had my first 5th grader I realized I am definitely NOT smarter than a 5th grader. As a matter of fact I think I'm not smarter than my now 4th grader either. I think my 1st grader may be smarter than me too!
The worst part about being a grown up is we lose our desire to be truly curious about what is around us. We take for granted the things we have seen and think we really do know it all because we have been there. No wonder our kids ignore us when we talk to them. I would ignore me too!
After I swallowed my pride when I could no longer help my 10 year old with her math homework, realized the rainforest knowledge my 9 year old has far exceeds my understanding of the plants in my own yard, and my 6 year old's ability to count numbers by 8 made me pause for a second to tell him he was correct I realized something...it's not that my kids are truly smarter than I am, they just pay attention more than I do.
Well holy giant light bulb moment. As a mother I am WAY too busy NOT paying attention. If we really just took 5 minutes every day to learn something new...see something we have seen before in a different light...LISTEN to our children, we too would open the whole world up to ourselves.
I say to my kids all the time that life is short. We only have so much time to experience things and learn things so do them now when you have the chance. Be happy being a kid. Well why don't we as mothers say that same thing to ourselves? There is no reason why I can't look at myself in the mirror every morning and say "today I am going to learn something new. I am going to have fun, enjoy the things that come my way, and be open to all the possibilities."
Why is it okay for us to give our children the message of living life to its fullest but we don't think we are deserving of it?
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