Of course, you want to hear great things about your child, and as a first time parent (little to no reference from young children growing up) I tend to double check my observations with the experts (I.e. the daycare teachers, and basically anybody who has an older kid). We’d noticed that at the daycare, and other occasions with other children, Naomi doesn’t always join the group. She wanders off and starts playing with something else, and rejoins the group activity in waves.
Given the paranoia of the possibility that my child is ‘abnormal’, I asked the daycare teacher whether she generally participates with the group activity, or whether she is disruptive to the class. The response was that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Naomi, and that it’s her character; she’s a leader by nature. And in fact, often times, the others want to see and join in on what she’s doing – which she doesn’t always appreciate by the way.
Is that maybe why she wanders off without looking back at us (whether at the park, at the airport, or anywhere else)? We once tested how far she would go, in a safe park environment. She was about 100 meters away before it was us who called her, because we couldn’t believe she had not once looked back! She glanced over her should briefly, and kept doing her own thing. And maybe it explains why she seldom looks to us for approval in what she does.
We let her – we actually like it. Miss Independent.
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