I am waiting for you..!

I usually let children who visit me for consultation to play with my diagnostic kit if I am sure, that it will be safe in their hands. I have not had any accidents in the last thirty five years.

What engages me is that some children are insistent to have my kit than play with attractive toys which are prominently placed in a toy shelf in the room. I still have not figured out why this is true of only. 

I have had some more insights about it this week, when parents directed a three year old child to the toy shelf and sat with the child to play with the toys. The moment they stopped playing with him, he returned to my kit. He wanted to imitate the way I used the kit.

Between two and three years, most children have  a fascination for what the adults are fond of or use regularly. Children at this age would look for an opportunity to get hold of the make up bag, cell phones, pens, writing pads, etc which the adults use. Most children would explore the vanity bags of their mother and the brief case of the father. If denied an opportunity, they would defy and still do it.

This is an exploratory instinct driven to enter into the adult's world. Most children between two and three have fantasies, imaginations and dreams to be like their father or mother do what they do. They fulfil that aspiration by trying to do the way adults would do, to actualise their fantasy.  

An ideal way to let children grow into expanding their imaginations is to invite children in to share in the adult's experiences. However, if the adults think it is done by giving them the cell phone to play with or use computer indiscriminately, or watch the serials in the TV, meant only for adults, then we are skipping an important phase in their developmental process. 

What children need would be the time of adults for nature walk, outdoor games, picnics, visiting places of interests for children like science, park, beach, zoo,etc., read stories which can help children to be anchored emotionally and morally, engage them to make things that unfold children's imagination such as a tree house, swing, etc. This creates a shared experience through which parents and children learn and get to know each other. This is how children who are occupied experience their formation!

When the parents tried to stop the boy from playing with my kit, he retorted, 'I am waiting for you to play with me'.

Waiting children and missing parents!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)