My two-and-a-half-year-old son was busy scanning the room for his next activity. He quickly looked around and settled on the toothbrush in my hand. "You want to brush your teeth?", I asked him. "Yeah." This is his latest word for positive responses...it has recently replaced "okay." "Go ask Tita to give you your toothbrush." Pitter, patter and he was off to her room. "'ake up Tita, 'ake up!"
"Please Tita can I have my toothbrush?" I asked on his behalf. Soon after he came over to me and we brushed our teeth together.
It was then that it hit me. A moment of clarity in my tenuous parenting journey. Prior to this I had never forced him to brush his teeth, I just did it in front of him everyday and would occasionally ask him if he wanted to do it too. It had been over 6 months since he had last said yes, and even then it was more chewing on the toothbrush rather than any actual teeth-cleaning. Tonight, though, he was brushing up and down and all around, really getting those teeth clean. So what was my great revelation? That just like his previous developments, sitting, crawling, walking, talking, he came into tooth brushing on his own accord, in his own time. All I did was model the action and provide the opportunity. Could it be that for future progress it might be this easy? Model and opportunity. Model and opportunity. I can almost taste the relief. Trust the process. He will find his way when left to discover it. clarity of speech, politeness, sharing, empathy, reading, writing, arithmetic...you name it. He'll get there.
Now, if only I can hold on to this moment...
