It's time to start letting go...

July 19, 2009

Today Vedant started to hold his own bottle. Lay him down or put him in his swing and hand him his bottle, and he would drink it up... with a little bit of "tilting assistance" since he still hasn't quite figured out how to tilt the bottle to drink the very bottom of the milk! While the moment made us very proud parents, it did start to tug a little at our hearts as well - our baby is starting to show signs of independence.

We had heard recently that as parents we would have to start letting go of our child much sooner than we anticipate... but since Vedant was only 6 months, we didn't take the advice too seriously. Come on, what's a 6 month old going to do independently? And today we were surprised that it is time to start letting go a little... Vedant will want to do things his way and as parents we need to find the balance between letting him do it his way and gently nudging him (without his knowledge, like "tilting assistance" ;-)), supporting him so he is successful in whatever he wants to accomplish.

For anyone who doesn't believe that parenting decisions need to be made so early in a child's development, here is an example. We want our child to be independent, to be his own person, and it may seem trivial, but it starts with letting go of his bottle!