Parenting the 6 year old

Salam friends,

It has been a long time since I have written a post about our little family and the family jewel, Yasmin.

Here I am talking about simplicity parenting and lifestyle, and we have been super busy. But it was all what I call “good busy”! Busy with work, busy with family, busy with Nur Spirituality Institute and the Little Muslims… Alhamdulillah that we are being given life that we keep experiencing His creation and witnessing His Divine Attributes (Asma ul-Husna) and getting to know our BEST FRIEND (doesn’t He call himself Wali 🙂  So it was all “good busy”…

But all along, I have been taking down notes on whatever I could get my hands on- there were many “ah ha” moments about parenting, many things I have realized or was simply puzzled by and had the strong urge to share them with you.

So hopefully – I mean insha’Allah 🙂 –  we are back to the productive “add new post” days because there is soooo much I would like to get out of my chest.

Parenting is taking a new turn everyday as our daughter is just past the official 5,5 date, fast approaching 6 years old.

Some days I feel like she has already become a full grown-up- the way she talks, the way she empathizes with us or questions our logic, leaving us speechless…

But then again, ten minutes later we are back to the terrible twos playing a game of bargain and threaten, bargain and threaten… the weakest moments of our parenthood adventure!

But I must confess something to you. I am enjoying this SOOOO much. I did not think I would. I always said- infancy is physically challenging but as they grow up it becomes pyschologically more and more challenging (although physically they are easier to take care of).

And yes, this was true for the terrible twos and trees perhaps. But now it is a whole new game.

She is truly becoming a friend. And I have wanted this more than anything in my relationship with her.

And no I don’t mean it in the way that let’s be mushy mushy friends without any authority way 🙂

I think you must have gotten my sense of parenthood by now- discipline with love. Lots of discipline with huge amounts of love 🙂

So we are friends in the sense that- we share. I try to share my feelings and thoughts with her more and more and she is able to handle them for the most part. And this way – just like grown-up friends – she is getting to know me more and getting closer to me more (not as physically attachment but more in I like hanging out with you way)…

I am on the other hand trying to have her open up to me- for which she has less reservations than me obviously and sometimes I have to ask her to take off sometime to be quite 🙁

But then there comes the time when she really wants to share something and she begins the sentence: “Promise you won’t get mad if I tell you something!?”

That makes me feel immediately that I have failed somewhere to have open communication lines… but maybe it is good she knows that whatever it is she did is not good; it is something mommy would not approve… Maybe it is this feeling that acts as an internal deterrent to personally choose not to do something wrong even when we are not around…

I am still figuring this out- perhaps it is both, just have to balance it and keep observing her.

Anyways…

It is good to be back friends! Stay tuned for more posts… as we figure out how not to mess up our kids’ beautiful natures !!!

Eren