If you are task oriented and achievement driven, parenting can be rough business. It's hard to see tangible and concrete results from all of that blood, sweat, and tears that you are pouring into it. Not exactly what you would call measurable. But every now and then you get a little shining ray of hope when you see that something actually "stuck".
For the past several weeks, I have been constantly prompting Peter to say please and thank you for things. Every single time that he has said please, it's because had I asked him to. And every single time that he has said thank you, it's because I had asked him to. Well this morning, after I set some more breakfast on his plate, he said thank you! Unprompted!
You have no idea how good that felt to hear. Not only was it this little taste of appreciation (why hello, 'words of affirmation' love language, how I've missed you), but it was that warm fuzzy feeling that maybe I'm not just dumping a bunch of energy out into the universe, my efforts had borne fruit!
He said thank you three or four more times this morning and each time I was beaming. It's the little-big things in life that really get you.
Of course, he stopped saying thank you again by lunchtime, but hey, I'll take what I can get!Labels: Motherhood