Nature or nurture? What do you think makes your littles the wonderful people they are (and maybe sometimes the not-so-wonderful people. Come on, we were all thinking it!) If you’re anything like me, you want to think it’s nuture (environment) when it comes to the good things. Katie loves fitness because we model the importance of taking care of your body, Katie loves books because we read to her so much, Katie’s good at building things because we play lego with her all the time.
What do you think makes your littles the wonderful people they are?
And then the bad things we want to believe are all nature (or genetics.) Katie is naturally stubborn (not our fault), Katie has trouble listening (must be in her genes), Katie has a hard time sitting still (blame genetics! Especially your significant other’s genetics. “She didn’t get that from me!”) In reality, it’s probably a mix of both, and then there’s also free will.
“She didn’t get that from me!”
No matter how we raise Katie, or what traits she was “born with”, she is still her own person. Sure, we can guide her, especially while she’s so young. But we can’t force her to be a certain way. Jason and I joke about how awkward it is to say “thank you” when people compliment your kids. I mean, we do it because it’s what’s socially accepted and we don’t want to look like jerks, but it is kind of bizarre when you think about it. “What beautiful children you have!” Or “She is so smart!” And you’re like “Oh thanks… we made them ourselves!”
We didn’t teach her to be pretty.
In all honesty, the only thing I really feel that we can take credit for is Katie’s good manners. We didn’t teach her to be pretty, we couldn’t force her to learn the alphabet before she was ready, and I know I am definitely not the reason she can do the monkey bars because I can’t even do them. But we sure as hell drilled please and thank you’s into her. And she has the best manners now. (Self high-five!) As for the rest, I guess we’ll never know what makes her the unique little lady that she is. One of life’s great mysteries.