Fond Memories of My Children's Childhood

Parenting is one of those roles that you learn as you go. If you are lucky, you become proficient quickly because if you do not your kids become very smart. Children learn when they can get away with what quickly. Some of these moments involve reacting properly when my children were misbehaving, but others are meaningful for another reason and have nothing to do with discipline.

Now that my children are grown, I thought it would be fun to remember some of their childhood actions that were memorable. I am not talking about the big celebrations or graduations, but rather some of the little moments that I remember most.

Favorite Responses When My Children Misbehaved

I admit that I seem to have memories of the times that I successfully managed to make my point. I am sure that there are meny times that I did not achieve that goal. These responses are the ones that I remember with pride.

The First and Only Temper Tantrum

My older son never threw temper tantrums, but my youngest tried it once. He loved food, and we were at a pizza parlor. He finished a slice and asked for another, which I was happy to buy. After two bites, he had enough but wanted ice cream. The pizza place had one of those carts with pictures of cones and popsicles on it. I looked at the unfinished pizza as I shook my head no. My six year-old son got on the floor and began to kick his feet and yell. I watched for a few minutes, and then I decided to join him. I got on the floor and began kicking my legs too. He looked at me in surprise and started to laugh. I picked him up and said, “I love you, but I am never going to reward you for doing that.” Fortunately, it was the only time he threw a temper tantrum.

A Locked Door

The Locked Room

One of my children had an argument with me. I do not even remember what we were arguing over, but I remember he stormed up to his room. I knocked on the door a few minutes later. My husband attempted to get him to open the door with no success. Eventually, when my son was ready, he opened the door. About 30 minutes later, my husband took off his door, and my son was without a door for a week. He quickly learned his privacy was a privilege, and we were never locked out again.

Favorite Learning Moments

Sometimes I learned from my children's actions, and other times they learned from me. There were always those surprise moments when they picked up knowledge unexpectedly.

Great Vocabulary

When my oldest was born, we read him bedtime stories nightly. Since I am a teacher, I know that reading to children is a fabulous way to enhance a child's vocabulary. Leaves swirled around us and a large gust of wind knocked over our basketball net as we were waiting for the bus one morning. My first grader said, “Mom, It’s a blustery day.” I remember being shocked at the word he chose and asked where he learned it. “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day”, he replied. It was the story we had read the preceding night.

Winnie the Pooh and The Blustery Day

Eating Yogurt

While my youngest loves food, and is still known to get hangry on occasion, my older son was never a big eater. Thus, the few moments when he was interested in food stand out. We were sitting at the table and I gave him a container of yogurt. He promptly held it in both hands and attempted to drink it. I never realized that yogurt containers look like small cups. It took a few minutes, but we modeled eating it with a spoon and soon he was imitating us.

Vacations

Sometimes we visited specific destinations, and other times we took cruises. Some trips were visits to family. Here are just a few memories from those trips.

Specific Destinations

We were very fortunate that we could take vacations when the kids were growing up. Although they both loved seeing new places, my youngest son would literally be skipping in the hotel lobby by the time we got to our destination. I loved seeing his excitement. He was always so happy to be away. He was the child with the temper, so we used to tell him that his temper had to stay home. Luckily, it always did.

A Cruise

When the children were young we took them on a cruise. One of the best features of a cruise is that there was complimentary babysitting. Even better, you could pay a small fee for extended babysitting late at night, which my children loved. The kids played games, watched movies, got snacks and participated in other fun activities. The late babysitting went until 1:00 am, and my children wanted to do it every night. A couple of times, my husband and I had to push ourselves to stay up for them. One day they were getting a little tough at the pool. We told them if they didn’t listen, they could not go to late night babysitting that night. My husband and I could not believe our threat worked.

A Little Shoe in a Big Street

Communication Without Talking

Many years ago, we were building a house. My husband and I checked on the house daily, and out firstborn, who was in a car seat and not yet talking, usually came with us. We would take him out of the seat and carry him as we walked around the property. He was usually very easygoing. On one visit we got back in the car and started to drive away as usual. Our son started getting very fussy and acted agitated. I turned around to try to calm him while my husband drove and noticed his shoe was missing. We backtracked toward our new home, and there in the street was a tiny shoe. He certainly learned how to communicate.

Memories of Your Child's Childhood

© 2020 Abby Slutsky