There is always an opportunity to teach a child mindfulness and the meaning of teamwork. As you know form previous posts, I am a grandma (they call me Gia) of two beautiful girls, two and four at the time of this lesson. Ava is now five and, of course, too old for a nap.
At times, situations escalate from calm to chaotic faster than you can get your pedal to the metal of a Maserati. Sometimes a Gia can intervene in these situations and teach small lessons.
All three of us were sitting on a glider being silly singing made up songs. Rocking and singing to the beat of our newly created music when out of the blue someone, I don’t point fingers, but it was the little one beating to her own drum. I usually encourage individuality, but we started gliding into the wall. At first, I thought it was an accident My older grandchild decided to grab her sister by the shoulder to stop her. The younger one yelling at operetta heights (there’s a career choice) and swinging like Babe Ruth (another one), I knew the situation was escalating quickly. I simply took both girls into my arms and separated them. Okay, you called me out. It wasn’t quite that easy, but I persisted. I explained we could be swinging and singing if we rock our bodies in unison and if we used teamwork. It worked and eventually the girls were sleeping in my arms. I did have an ulterior motive.
I was definitely in my happy place.