Did you ever want to be grown-up as a child? To have the opportunity to do the same things as adults, even if just for a moment? I’m not talking about cooking sirloin, cleaning the toilet, or chopping firewood, but staying up late, earning your own money, or maybe even driving a car?
I was around four years old when my dad was repairing his old truck, and I kept getting in his way. He was meticulously sanding the old paint off the body, and when he saw how much I wanted to help him, he gave me a piece of his sandpaper and allowed me to assist. I was on cloud nine. My dad and I were doing grown-up work together. In the evening, he completed the car repair, sanded the areas thoroughly, and gave them a fresh coat of paint. The shared experience was so captivating that I got up early the next day and secretly went to sand the freshly painted car again to surprise my dad. You can probably imagine the surprise and shock he experienced. I nearly gave him a heart attack, and I learned my first life lesson, that our help is not always welcome when we don’t correctly assess the situation.
As a mother, my own children have “helped” me countless times, often causing more harm than good. I’m sure you can relate, like the joint Christmas baking session when there was more dough on the floor than on the baking sheet. Watering the plants with the little ones, where the plants’ roots were nearly drowned under the deluge. In our family archives, I even have a story of one of my children who earnestly wanted to help iron a crumpled plastic bag with a hot iron (I couldn’t save the iron, but fortunately, I saved the child and the apartment from catching fire). We all have stories and anecdotes from our childhood or parenting experiences, either our own or passed down, and we bring them up every year during birthday celebrations, often rolling our eyes at each other, wondering why we’re retelling them again.
Helping adults is a way for children to get closer to them, to mimic them, to be just like them. In the eyes of children, adults are bigger, wiser, and more powerful. While parents help their children at the beginning of their life journey, it’s the children who become their significant teachers later on. Children remind us of the art of love, immediate joy, and selflessness. It’s what we, as adults, gradually lose, and it’s only through our children that we rediscover it.
Children are a miracle. Children are our future. Children are everything to us. Children are like mirrors reflecting our love. I have six of them at home, so believe me, I know what I’m talking about.
So, when your child taps you on the shoulder today, on International Children’s Day, and enthusiastically says, “Mom, Dad, today is my special day, what are we going to do?” be happy that they want to celebrate it with you and make the most of this day together.
Wishing you a happy and joyful day spent with your children,
Ivana Tykač,
- 1. June 2022
