week 19: have fun!
One of my 2010 resolutions is to have more fun with my children. I can lose sight of the “F” word when I am too focused on schedules and tasks and it is a shame because little ones provide so much opportunity for silliness, giggles and mischief.
Last week I brought my son to his first TaiKwonDo class. There is a studio in our neighborhood that takes children as young as three and we had been counting the days till his third birthday as this seemed like an activity he really wanted to try.
He is still in “trial” week and I’m not sure we will make the final cut-off (meaning we will have to come back when he is a little older), but it’s been so much fun regardless. Trying on the outfit, the headgear, bouncing on the mats, talking about it at night before going to bed.
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It’s not unusual to hear gossip that blames one child’s phobias or extreme behavior on his or her parents. This is an unfortunate offshoot of the popularization of Freud’s theories of the subconscious and childhood traumas. As parodied in Woody Allen’s humor, we’ve all heard adults link their emotional setbacks to the ways they were raised. One of my favorite Woody Allen quotes is: “when I was kidnapped, my parents jumped to action. They rented out my room”.
Three years ago, when my son was born, very few people came to visit us at the hospital, per our wishes. Among the few visitors were my mother and her best friends, all of whom have since become crucial allies in helping us raise our children. In many ways, these women are now my best friends too, given how much I have come to rely on them. 
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