I'm often worried that I have a dandelion daughter but I'm treating her like an orchid. By providing just the "right" conditions for things, am I not letting her grow the roots and strengthen her leaves, so to speak, to develop the heartiness and resilience that she would otherwise naturally build for herself? There are so many terms these days for the "wrong way" to parent (snowplow, helicopter, etc.) that it's easy to overthink decisions. I want home to be the loving, warm, nurturing place that it is - and also encourage her to be adaptive and strong.
“I realized my oldest child might be an orchid when our second child was born. As a newborn, I would lay him down in his bed, and he would just—go to sleep!”
This resonates so much! Granted my second baby is still shy of 3 months old.. but even from a few weeks old I told my husband that I think he has a different personality than our 3yo.. he’s just “easier” (goes to sleep more easily, more relaxed and content to just chill during the day, etc). My husband thinks I’m kind of crazy to read into this, and there are the dynamics of second time parenthood, so we’ll see how he progresses of course but I wouldn’t be surprised if my oldest turns out to be much more orchid-like than his younger brother.
I'm often worried that I have a dandelion daughter but I'm treating her like an orchid. By providing just the "right" conditions for things, am I not letting her grow the roots and strengthen her leaves, so to speak, to develop the heartiness and resilience that she would otherwise naturally build for herself? There are so many terms these days for the "wrong way" to parent (snowplow, helicopter, etc.) that it's easy to overthink decisions. I want home to be the loving, warm, nurturing place that it is - and also encourage her to be adaptive and strong.
“I realized my oldest child might be an orchid when our second child was born. As a newborn, I would lay him down in his bed, and he would just—go to sleep!”
This resonates so much! Granted my second baby is still shy of 3 months old.. but even from a few weeks old I told my husband that I think he has a different personality than our 3yo.. he’s just “easier” (goes to sleep more easily, more relaxed and content to just chill during the day, etc). My husband thinks I’m kind of crazy to read into this, and there are the dynamics of second time parenthood, so we’ll see how he progresses of course but I wouldn’t be surprised if my oldest turns out to be much more orchid-like than his younger brother.