When you're finding parenthood tough, and you find yourself thinking "Oh, this would be so much easier if he/she could walk/talk/stop putting coins in their mouth", take a moment. It's likely that you will find yourself wishing away their development as you race towards the next stage.
Parents with older children will often tell you how fast the time seems to go. This can seem quite frightening when the father of a sixteen-year-old tells you that it ‘seems like yesterday’ that he was holding the baby in the delivery room. You may wonder whether children are devices for accelerating time.
In fact, the opposite can be true. Seeing how your child approaches things can help you be less jaded. Your child may show you how sheep are inherently hilarious, for example, or that hitting an empty tin with a stick is deeply satisfying.
Rather than whizzing around telling yourself you can’t afford to stop, take time to engage with your child and find novelty in familiar things – which self-help gurus frequently cite as the best way to stop the years flying by. And as your children get older, your lifestyle keeps evolving: it’s impossible to just stay the same year after year, which is all too easy to do if you get comfortable with your routines.
Every phase of childhood has its ups and downs and while, say, being able to walk, solves some problems, it brings with it a host of new ones. Their growing independence makes them simultaneously harder and easier to deal with in different ways. So there’s no point constantly looking ahead to the next stage – enjoy them as they are now.