Space Pilots

I am blown away by the brilliance, passion, the tenacity and pure energy that my children show every day. They are a driving force. Their strong will and determination are what help them get up every time they fall down. It keeps them trying again and again. I liken that driving force to a rocket taking off from earth. It has an incredibly huge engine and burns tons of fuel just to get up through the atmosphere. Then, once it reaches space, it doesn't need all that power and energy. Young children's work is disguised as play. They work all day long without caring about how they look or what they will have to show for it. They are immersed in the process, not the outcome. And the way they go about learning seems so mixed up, messy and backwards to an adult. We become concerned about their behavior (noisy, belligerent, bossy, noncompliant) and their performance (lazy, inconsistent, slow, lacking concentration). And every adult I know runs out of patience for a child. We put our adult values on children when it is their job to be learning other things. When they are older, they will be much more concerned how others perceive them and what is their place in society and what they need to learn to pursue their interests. My guess is their strong will and determination, if not snuffed out, will lead them through the first 10 years or so whether they get things right or wrong, no matter how they look while they are doing them. This mother culture that I am in seems so concerned about how naughty their children are as if any mother's own child is so different or so much worse than any other kid. A child will reflect their mother's perception of them. It is a shame that we treat children like they are bad and idiotic. The only 2 differences I can see in children and adults is that children don't have the experience that adults have. And they are experiencing life in fast forward. They are growing up so fast and have so many more crisis moments than we do. It is like squeezing 5 adult years with all the emotional highs and lows into 6 months' time. Children don't always communicate well but many adults don't either. They hate to be talked down to or told what or what not to do. Most adults I know will do the opposite of what they are told to do unless there is an obvious negative consequence. We could all learn to treat each other, young and old, with more dignity and respect. And many adults are the worst role models for showing respect. I don't like to be yelled at or told to be quiet. When my kids do those things to me, I tell them I don't like it and I want them to stop. I don't punish them for it. Instead, I try harder not to yell or tell them to hush. I try harder to show them the respect that I want them to model. I say please and thankyou to my children. They are learning. But it is a long slow process. My hope is that once their rockets have reached space and their driving momentum slows down. They will calmly look around, realizing they are just one important part of this complex society and they will remember to have dignity and respect for all living things. I can't possibly show them that by forcing my will on them or intimidating or manipulating them into compliant "good" children.
I'm raising good space pilots. I don't want them to get out into space on their own in a space ship that they don't know how to run. They might sit there staring at all the buttons too afraid to push anything for fear they will make a mistake. I want them to push every button, pull every knob, figure out how things work in their own way, in whatever way they can understand. Childhood is such a short wild time. It is obvious this is the time, while that fierce energy is still burning, to learn who you are, how your body fits into this world, how the world around you works and changes.