An inspiring list...

I just came across this from Simple Living and wanted to share it here:

Ways to Slow Down

Turn off your TV
Leave your house
Know your neighbors
Look up when you are walking
Greet people
Sit on your front stoop
Plant flowers
Use your library
Play together
Buy local
Share what you have
Help a lost dog
Take children to the park
Garden together
Support neighborhood schools
Fix it even if you didn’t break it
Have pot lucks
Honor elders
Pick up litter
Read stories aloud
Dance in the street
Talk to the mail carrier
Listen to the birds
Put up a swing
Help carry something heavy
Barter for your goods and services
Start a tradition
Ask a question
Hire young people for odd jobs
Organize a block party
Bake/Cook extra and share
Ask for help when you need it
Open your shades
Sing together
Share your skills
Take back the night
Turn up the music
Turn down the music
Listen before you react in anger
Mediate a conflict
Seek to understand
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard. Work to change this.

Being a Slow Parenting Mama

Today my mum suggested I think about using a child minder - my eyes nearly popped out of my head! She said because she believes my little boy is very full on and I needed to look after my health! I could not be in better shape and I personally don't find my little one full one. So it got me thinking - she never used a childminder/nanny for me so it must be something about society today that has crept into her consciousness.

What is it about today's society that we just find so hard to be at home, happily pottering around with our young? I keep having visions of a mama happily yet exhausted, sitting in a chair, feet up at the end of the day, having done a full days work of caring for her family. I think this vision is what I am aspiring to. A day with small people is full on, it can be fun, exhausting, exhilarating, hilarious, frustrating and a hundred other explanations but isn't this what it is all about? More full on than any job I know and also more rewarding than any job I know. I'm proud at the end of the day to be an exhausted mama, I'm proud to have given my time to raising this small person to the best of my abilities. I won't always get it right but I will give it everything I have got - why wouldn't I?

For me, if I felt like I needed extra help I would definitely start looking up on-line ways to entertain in the most natural, simple of ways of how to spend the day. Using nature as my main focus. Nature for me symbolises slow parenting. There is constant change and growth yet underneath it all is a slow, gentle rhythm surrounded by beauty and a sense of being held in a way I wish I could feel held every day.

In being a Slow Parenting Mama I strive to create the above for my small son and hope that by my following this rhythm, he will always feel held, respected and loved, with plenty of laughter thrown in to the mix. xx

Listening and Respecting

I'm a big believer in listening to and respecting small, tiny babies needs. Because I think it sets them up to become happy toddlers, teenagers and people. Why? Because as adults we like to be seen and heard and find it infuriating when we are not seem and heard. I'm kind of thinking that when babies are told when to sleep, when to eat, how much to eat etc, we are basically telling them I know best and totally disrespecting them. My thoughts are that we are saying to them, don't trust your instincts listen to me because I know what you need best. Well, do we? Are the toddlers who tantrum really just rebelling, shouting in their own small way "listen to ME!!!!" My own small experience (and from listening to others who have parented in the slow parenting way vs I know best way) is that babies and toddlers who are slow parented don't seem to tantrum, cry, be described as needy anything like those who are parented in the other way. Hummmm food for thought.