“Childhood means simplicity.
Look at the world with the child’s eye – it is very beautiful.”

The other day my daughter informed she would have two babies. 
Both girls–Nia and Rosie. And that I would be responsible for putting them in her tummy, because you can’t do it alone.

True little one, true. You can’t do it alone!
Giggle, giggle.

But her sweet prediction of the future got me thinking. I love how kids perceive the world. How as a parent you literally get to see them forming their ideas of reality and fantasy and what’s possible and what’s not possible.

I remember as a kid keeping a notebook and writing down all the things I wanted to remember when I become an adult. The truths of childhood that somehow became lost on adults. The things my parents were absolutely blind too.

And you know what?

I have no idea where that cherished little book of childhood truths is located. And I don’t remember anything that I had written there, that at the time was so all important to me.  I have become the blind adult. The one who doesn’t understand.

I know I disappoint my kids sometimes when I don’t understand the full significance of something. Something that’s critical to their happiness, but an irrelevant detail to me.

And I got to thinking again, how do I bridge that gap between the harsh realities of adulthood and the innocence of childhood? How do I not be the parent that doesn’t understand anything?

I believe it’s by honoring the emotions.

Doesn’t matter why my child is upset–be it angry, sad or jealous. It just matters that I notice, and that I make space for those emotions.  And my reasons for being stressed out or angry aren’t any more important than their reasons for feeling the way they do.

At the end of the day, we’re just human beings looking to be understood and searching for those moments of connection where we feel like people see us and accept us as we are.

So, here’s to growing up and yet hanging onto the magic of childhood for many years to come.