Nobody presses one’s buttons like children do. They push the boundaries so far out that you find yourself face to face with your own limits or limitations. The point of departure is that children are innocence personified, and that during their age of innocence there is much that one can learn from what they do and what they bring out in adults. It takes a while I imagine for a small child to really develop a malicious streak if at all, for the most part they are about being mischievous or just trying to have some fun at any cost.
They may say things that make us cringe, or do things that knock us for a loop or just be down right recalcitrant. This is part of them merely doing childhood. Sometimes, we may find ourselves laughing and shaking our heads at their pranks, or positively unsettled and dismayed at other times.
The way adults react to any of the antics that ‘doth unfix our hair’, is a function of what is within the particular adult at a given time. They say that when a toothpaste tube is squeezed, it is what is inside that will come out, and such is the case with what children bring out. They have that effect.
Often times these little cherubs can bring out the most divine of qualities from the adults around them, at those moments one could swear that ‘yes indeed children are heavenly beings’. Then there are those times when the self same celestial beings bring out the very ‘worst’ in us, again it’s par for the cause.
Now as much as nobody wants to have the worst brought out of them, one can’t deny that perhaps the worst shouldn’t be inside anyway, it ought to be vented out, shed a light upon and possibly expelled.
So when a small person does or says something that positively shocks us as adults, we must do a self inquiry to find out what exactly it is within us that makes us react the way we react when we are being, pushed, challenged or ‘exposed’ by the actions of little ones.
From personal experience, I have come to learn to appreciate every wayward comment, unwarranted meanness, and strange remark that I am exposed to at the hands of these little people. I am learning to use the opportunities that these actions offer for me to see aspects of myself that I otherwise wouldn’t know to look at.
In my older years I have perhaps become somewhat jaded, and have developed mechanisms to dismiss any information from people that creates cognitive dissonance by just saying, ‘ Ah People are just people, they will do, say and think whatever they want regardless of what you hope for or expect’. Developed low expectations of people one might say. This mechanism of course has been one of defence. This way one doesn’t have to acknowledge everything said or done that is unsettling let alone take responsibility for one’s own reactions.
The beauty of having children say and do the strangest things to push one’s buttons, is that one cannot dismiss or avoid seeing one’s own reactions. This somewhat forces one to face whatever preconceptions, beliefs and un-investigated ideas about life and the world one may have had.
This is when the truth of what you believe shines through, the children are merely the spotlight that directs you to where the issues may be.
How wonderful it is to have little mirrors living and breathing, walking around reflecting to us who we are inside as well as who we think we are.
Thank Goodness for small mercies! Children do help us to heal and grow. Having them around provides us with invaluable education and information about our own selves that we definitely need in life. So let’s watch, listen and learn from kids, while also remembering to let them just be, they are only that young once! Another thing worth remembering is that children are to be taken with ‘a pinch of salt’ after all, they are only children.
More power to the little ones! Salute!
