My older daughter works as a nanny for a family that has a 3 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. She has been working for them since September and has grown quite attached to the kids.
When she first started working with them, she would call me and ask me for recipes for things I used to make for/with my kids when they were little; things like homemade paste and homemade play-doh type clay. She would remember things we did when she was a child and ask me how I had done it so she could do it with her kids (well I call them her children but it’s really her charges).
It made me feel good that those little things I did for them as kids stuck in their minds with such positive impressions that she wanted to replicate the experience for the children with whom she works. It also made me more and more involved with the kids, even though I have only met them once.
The little boy wants to learn to read before he starts kindergarten in the fall. He’s quite bright and has tested as gifted but he also has some special needs. As a former teacher, I have been able to look online and guide my daughter to some sites where she can get some help for working with the little boy. I’ve also started noticing kids’ reading and phonics workbooks when I go to thrift shops where they are cheap enough for me to buy and send to the little boy.
The other day my daughter told me that the little boy is on the cusp of reading and loves to work in the workbooks I sent to him. His parents are thrilled with the workbooks too and they sit with him in the evenings and help him with the work and they give him “homework” for him to do in the workbooks while they are at work.
It made me very happy that I was able to help my daughter help the little boy. It also makes me glad that my daughter’s childhood was positive enough so that she thinks of it with fondness and wants to share that kind of experience with “her children”!
I can’t think of anything that warms the heart more than knowing something you did while the children were growing up was remembered and valued now. Those moments are precious. I’m sure you were a very good mother. It shows in your thoughts. Who knows, too, where that little boy could go in life due in large part to your indirect influence. I would give you a pat on the back, but you have already received much greater rewards.
LikeLike
(((Corina))) You did good. 🙂
LikeLike
Aw! How sweet!
LikeLike