Wise words for the little one

“Wear your slippers around the house, son.”

“C’mon boy, drink milk so you’ll be strong.”

“Little man, wipe that drool off your chin so you don’t get a face rash.”

These may not be exactly the wisest words I can share with my toddler, but they sure are helping him build better habits. I’m trying to teach him patience now, with the terrible two’s about to come in. Slowly I can see him getting more easily frustrated when things don’t go his way.

“Patience, baby, patience.”

Sometimes he understands, sometimes he doesn’t. That doesn’t stop me from saying those words anyway. The fact is while those words are for him, they’re also targeting this mother who’s struggling to keep her cool together too.

My mother imparted a lot of thoughts to ponder on as I was growing up. I may not have appreciated them at the particular time she shared them, but I have a better understanding of them now. “Don’t eat chocolate! You just came from the dentist!” or “Pull your shoulders back. Don’t slouch!” My five-year-old self couldn’t see the logic (How can chocolate be bad? And I’m more comfortable slouching!) but cut to many years later and I’m wishing I had taken much better care of my teeth and posture.

I’m sure there’ll be a lot of advice I’ll be throwing at my son as he grows older. There is one poem I’ve been holding on to that I can’t wait to share with him. It’s a poem that’s full of advice on growing up and being the best person you can be. The toddler would rather listen to nursery rhymes right now, so perhaps I’ll use this year to commit this poem to memory. Have a read and see that this poem full of wise words isn’t just meant for little ones – adults can benefit from it a lot, too. Perhaps Kipling aimed to mold little boys into men with this poem, but I can’t help but look to this poem for parenting advice as well.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!