For the zillionth time today, I heard the words 'Its such a waste that she's staying home to look after the kids'. Bah!
Anyway, I am a stay at home person and with each passing day, I am learning about Aaron and more about myself than any other time in my life (except my own babyhood I guess).
Its all about communication now. Aaron tries so hard to communicate what he wants, what he's being playful about and how he feels. He uses plenty of words and sounds but we just don't understand them all yet. Nevertheless, we are communicating. I find that with 100% attention on him and a genuine interest in what he is saying, I eventually work out what he means. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, other times a few days. Patience definitely plays a big role here because until I get it, the sounds escalate to high pitched annoyances. Its easy to get frustrated and dismiss him but that doesn't solve anything. Sometimes I am guilty of it but, thats life - I get tired.
We have also been teaching him to sign and its starting to pay off. He has been using several signs that I taught him. His favourite is pointing his index finger to the palm of his other hand indicating 'more'. The real payoff is that he is starting to make up signs of his own and teaching them to me. Today, I learned the sign for glasses. He pats both his ears! I deserve an 'A' for picking that one up.
10 comments:
soon i'll be in for aaron's sign language course too. reminds me of meet the fockers baby!
it must be so annoying to hear those nasty comments. as if looking after your own child is a past time that can be done with your eyes closed. im not even a mother but i appreciate the hardest and most undermined job.
As much as I joke about my kids, I wouldn't have traded the time that I spent with them when they were younger for the world. Well, I say that now, I might not have back then!
Don't pay any attention to morons. They should be glad someone "wasted" their time at home with them when THEY were kids!
From a linguistics perspective, watching a child learn language and communication is incredibly fascinating. I remember the absolute delight of watching each of my children move from noises to sounds to words, and now that I have grandchildren, I can experience the same joy again. I envy you!
The next time you hear that comment, you should ask them if they thought their moms/caregivers, etc wasted their time raising them.
A few X'mas ago, I was with my friend's 2 y-o in Canada, and he kept saying something like, "wa da da dee da" and pointed at things... only to find out from his dad that he's asking me, "what is that?" At times, I couldn't figure if he was speaking to me in English or Cantonese since they speak to him in both languages. I thought that was just so cute.
If it is a WASTE stayign home with your won child,,,,,,,,,,,, what is it that I stay with OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN
people only comment negatively about "time wasted" by stay at home moms because they have limited knowledge about what is going on at home....perhaps they have been neglected in their childhood as well?
I spent many hours away from home when Aaron was a baby. Chris was always home. We never considered it to be a sacrifice; it was a life style choice. We would raise and nurture our own kids. I know that not everybody can make this choice. If you can choose to be home, I encourage you to do so. Don't think for a moment that the kids don't notice.
Aaron was only three when I became an air traffic controller and went to only working 40 hours per week. One day, this little 3 yr old asked me, "Daddy, do you remember when you worked at the factory and were never at home?"
They know.
You rock. You are awesome. Don't worry about crazy fools :)
Just want to let you know that i actually read ur blog and am loving it.. You are really living such a good life!! Not like us pathetic fools still stuck in Intel!!!! you go girl!!!
Oh my goodness! Thanks for all the encouraging comments from everybody. I do appreciate them so much and it did make a difference to my day when I read them.
No matter how hard it is, I do know that in the end, I'll feel that its all worthwhile. I don't have to wait for the end...I'm already feeling it now although its mixed in with all the tiredness and the 'moronic' comments out there.
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