Motherhood

Perfectly imperfect

As we were collecting shells on the beach a couple of weeks ago I found myself disregarding those that were broken. My children on the other hand delighted in finding shells of all different shapes and colours, regardless of how perfect they looked to me. It made me wonder at how a child looks at their world without bias and with no preconceived notions of what pretty is.

A little while later we were collecting semi precious stones. Again I found myself gravitating towards the ones that were perfect in my eyes – no chips, no scratches and a good size. When I went through my children’s collection I encouraged them to do the same, and yet heard their quick motivations as to why they liked their choices. This one looks like a heart, this one looks like a mountain, I like this one’s colour. Perfectly imperfect to them. Again I was reminded to see the world through their eyes and to learn that as their mom my job is to teach not to takeover.

Fast forward to Valentine’s day now and we are busy making a card for their teachers. I help them cut the shapes and they stick them. The love penguins look beautiful and I’m so proud of what we have created. But Amy wants to colour her Penguin’s eyes in and his heart stomach too. This soon leads to a sky and a sun being drawn. The penguin is now slightly out of shape, but when I look again at the picture later my disappointment at them not sticking to my plan and keeping the card looking nice my way, I see that her creativity has made it so much more personal and given it a certain art style that I just love! Picasso Penguin rather than Perfect Penguin.

Take the hint mom, three lessons in three weeks, embrace the imperfection and it will be more perfect!

Previous Post Next Post

You Might Also Like

2 Comments

  • Reply Heather August 3, 2019 at 12:23 pm

    Thanks for this brilliant post xxx

    • Reply Lisa Trollip August 5, 2019 at 10:12 am

      Thanks Heather, our children teach us new lessons every day!

    Leave a Reply