As I sat here stumped for an article to write this week, I tried to reflect on what in my week had stood out to me. Were there any moments that made me change my perspective? Did anything make me think twice about a previous opinion? All I accomplished last week was babysitting. I babysat my nieces and nephew, a regular routine for a recent college graduate with no job and a lot of love for the munchkins. People typically vastly underestimate how much toddlers understand and soak up about their surroundings. My nephew, for instance, is obsessed with wildlife. I told him I was a genius once and he questioned me into a corner about the diet of Dodo birds, to which I eventually admitted I was clearly not a genius about animals; it was only every other area of life.
My niece sets up tea parties with precision and makes believe we are all princesses. My other niece pretty much just scoots around the floor; she’s still a baby (in the literal, not offensive, sense). Elyse is the older of the girls (which I say, as they are children, not to insult them). Her demeanor is sweet, sometimes whiny, but overall good-natured. She loves to run through sprinklers and dance around pretending to be a ballerina, but also is constantly asking to sit in your lap because she loves a good cuddle.
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There are times, however, that babysitting is not rainbows and butterflies with, as you might have guessed, the inevitable temper tantrum. After a completely inconsolable tantrum sparked by a Band-Aid falling off of Elyse’s foot, I sent her to her room. I felt bad, but when a child is screaming, sometimes you don’t have a choice other than to firmly offer some “alone time.” I always wonder, when I send a child to his or her room, if it sticks with them. Do they sit there and think about how they can seek revenge? Are they cursing me in child-language? Are they going to be mad at me the rest of the day?
One thing is almost always certain, though. When they emerge from their room, it is like the tantrum never happened. This week, however, Elyse did something that took me by surprise. She climbed into my lap and said, “Nina, I love you.” It took me by surprise because I can remember countless times that I was sent to my room that I spent the whole time being angry and thinking about every reason I shouldn’t have been punished.
Elyse didn’t even think about being mad. She let it go, she loved me unconditionally. There are so many times in our everyday life that we find something to be mad about. The driver in front of us is going too slow. We ran out of milk. Our friend spoils the ending of a show for you. And in the end, we never think about how little those things affect our lives. So I wanted to write this article for Elyse, thanking her for her unconditional (three-year-old) love. She shows me every day how I should act - minus the occasional whining - and how I should tell those that matter that I love them, even at the most random times. I think we should strive to be more like toddlers in all honesty, because why not offer some unconditional love just because?
