When Colin was little he cried for every haircut until he was about 2 1/2 or so. I don't think Evan cried once. Logan so far is taking after Colin. Today he had his second hair cut and I really thought that since he has outgrown a lot of his separation anxiety that he would sit calmly and smile while he got his haircut. Nope, he cried and cried and cried. We tried putting a show on and we tried to get him all excited about sitting in the "special" car, but he just kept arching his back so I couldn't even get him in his seat. Finally, I just sat him in my lap, but he continued to scream through the whole thing. I don't know how the poor lady was able to still do a decent job, but he is looking pretty darn handsome if I do say so myself....
And if you were wondering, he cheered right up once he was done and got to have a balloon.
In a completely unrelated topic...today a friend posted on face book a wonderful link to a blog post that a single dad had written about not yelling at your children and making them feel small. This post really got me thinking for a lot of today and I just had to write about it. See since even before I had kids I always felt that one of, if not the, most important things you can give your kids is self esteem. I always felt that so many of the poor choices kids make, and adults too, is the result of poor self esteem. Unfortunately, a lot of parents out there don't realize the amount of power they have to hurt their children. And how is a kid to have good self esteem if even their parents, who are supposed to love them the most, put them down.
Having children has just reinforced to me how much importance parents have in shaping their children's lives. Kids really do listen and watch everything we say and do and mimic us. I don't want to be a parent that yells at their kids all the time. I don't want a house of yelling. Because, if I yell at my kids then they will start yelling at each other and soon the whole house is communicating by yelling. I have been in homes like this and I don't get it.
I also don't want to EVER, not even once, put my kids down. I don't understand how some parents can say the things they say to their own children. Whether young or old, those are your kids. Why would you ever want them to feel unappreciated, unloved or just down on themselves. I could probably write a whole essay on this but I will keep it simple and say that I hope my kids know how much we love them. No matter what. And we will continue to try hard not to take our anger out on them or make them feel small. And if my kids read this years down the road, I hope they are proud.
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