Someone said to me the other day, if you want to get anywhere with a toddler, you double the time and add half to what it would take normally.

The next day we were half rushing and my son decided that his usual breakfast time should double. He took extra care with every spoon of cereal, and made sure to clean up every single drop every single time he spilled anything.

He was in no rush. 

But I was.

I watched him getting exhasperated; we HAD to go to get to play group. He NEEDED to finish.

I had 2 options.

1. Get angry and take over feeding him.
2. Breath, and sit down with him, and let him take his time.

I am not known to always taken option 2, in fact recently I’m finding it increasingly hard. But I did this time.

I sat down, asked him if his breakfast was nice, and told him I could see how much he was concentrating on each spoon.

He nodded, said “breakfast nice” and kept going.

We were late. It was worth it. It made me stop and think about my priorities, and about the way we pace life.

Life with a toddler isn’t meant to be fast paced… Life in general is too fast. We run and rush from A to B and rarely take the time to just taste our food, or to watch the birds, or to pick up beautiful leaves. These are all things integral to my son’s life, and he is so much more content that any adult I know.

Maybe this is why.

Because he eats his breakfast slowly.

Because he looks at colours and birds.

Because he marvels at slugs and gets excited at spiders.

Because he doesn’t have an agenda.

Breakfast at my toddler’s pace could have led to an angry and rushed day, but I am glad I chose option 2; it led to a beautiful day an a good chance for me to realign.