Serving Bread

Before being a father, I had this impression that babies cry. They cry all the time. They cry for no reason. They cry for reasons that I’m too slow to comprehend. They just cry. But after a few weeks and months with Layla, I was (pleasantly) surprised by how little she cried. Sure, she cries when she’s constipated (don’t we all?!?). She cries at the immunizations. She cried when she was sick. She whines/cries in the mornings when she wakes up. But if we anticipate and adopt a policy of pre-emptive care, we generally can eradicate most of the crying. I was a happy father.

But something has changed recently. Layla is becoming a toddler. Toddlers cry. She seems to be a lot less patient when she wants something (especially something that she shouldn’t have). She’s a lot picker of what foods we give her, and she just bangs herself a lot more. At least once a day she’ll try a maneuver that will result in utter failure on her part, only to bang herself. I know some of those gorwing pains are pretty painful, but basically, I think she also has figured out that she should just cry when she fails, regardless of whether it hurts.

Lesson #1: The Lord loves to teach us humility. I thought I had parenting down–the less she cried, the better I felt about myself. I take that back.
Lesson #2: Risk-taking involves failure. Failure involves pain. Pain can lead to crying. That’s ok!
Lesson #3: As Layla ages, I can control less of her environment and her decisions. She will fall and hurt herself. This is where I learn to trust her to the good Father.
Lesson #4: When Layla’s in pain, it’s good to be right there and hold her and comfort her and encourage her to keep going.
Lesson #5: Toddlers cry way more than babies! At least mine does.