Missing a First

A lot of the time a mother witnesses a whole lot of ‘firsts’ in their children’s lives;first steps, first words, first day of schoom,etc, and the father tends to miss a lot of them and hears about them happening, or might see a video or photo if they’re lucky.

Recently I missed one of my child’s ‘firsts’. I thought I would feel worse about it than I did! Is that bad?? I thought I would feel awful, as I know other mums would/have. I feel fine about it though, and didn’t upset her. Maybe I would feel different if she was upset about it?

Freckled Face number 2 had her first gymnastics competition. She has been doing gymnastics for about a year and has always said that she didn’t “EVER” want to do competition’s. A year later and she very nervously agreed to give a competition a try. Unfortunately I had a prior commitment, so I couldn’t go to watch her. Luckily Daddy was able to come to the rescue and take her and stay to watch! At first I was a little gutted that I couldn’t be there to watch, but then I realised that it would be really nice for both of them to have this experience together. I get to see her practice every week. I have been there at every big point, all the firsts in her life, so far. He’s missed a lot of them.

She was very nervous and kept saying “…but what if I get something wrong?” to which I would respond “You just correct it if you need to and keep going!” All we ever want from our kids is for them to give everything their best shot and enjoy what they’re doing. Being competitive is good, as long as it doesn’t mean that get really stressed, upset and jealous! Experiencing those emotions are fine, as we all need to learn to deal with and express our emotions, but I don’t want our little Freckled Faces thinking they have to win everything and be the best at everything. All I ask is that you…

“BE THE BEST YOU THAT YOU CAN BE“

 

Freckled Face number 2 had to lead her team, which added to the nerves! Luckily for me, Daddy caught her bits on video so I was able to watch what she had done. She did great! We are SO very proud of her! She managed to control her nerves and you would have never guessed she was even a little nervous! Her team came first in their age group and she really enjoyed herself.

Daddy was extremely proud of her and enjoyed being there to watch her doing something she loves doing!

Though I felt a bit bad for not being there in person, I felt confident that she knew I was thinking of her and looked forward to hearing about it. I am really happy that they had that time together.  I am grateful that technology makes it possible for me to see how she got on!

Have you ever missed a ‘first” in your child’s life? How did you feel??