The age of innovation

I have pondered the age of innovation over a couple of flu tabs, and lots of fluids – unfortunately nothing more spectacular than water. Yet I found that as parents we feel it our calling to mould our child to behave. This behaviour are in most cases that with which the greater society would feel comfortable, yet are we doing our children any favours?

As I suggested I have been feeling terrible the last couple of days, and Mia's flu has been give or take 2 days behind mine. I have thus tried to do the parental thing and kept her indoors, as I struggle to find a way to dress her with anything but short-sleeve tops and shorts. I thought we reached a happy medium, where I would let her watch any of her DVD's at command I would just lie there semi-comatose hoping and wishing that my mind would return sooner rather than later.

She was happy as a clam, I read about 15 books to her the morning and I have diligently sat through all her fairy tales, so I was happy that in no way she could feel neglected. She left the room to go and fetch something in the kitchen. I did not worry as she could not get out – I locked the door and hid the key. It was after a while of silence that it dawned on me that at her age silence meant trouble.

I tip-toed down the hall, and saw the kitchen cupboard open, I was still not alarmed, she often helps herself from the cupboard. It was only when I peered around the corner of the open door that I was struck with utter amazement. There on the floor in the kitchen my daughter was hunched on all fours, throwing up tiffs of flour, self-raising flour and Maizena. The only reason the baking powder survived was because she could not get the lid open... I froze checked myself for any harsh reactions, and let out a whimper.

Mia gazed up, she was elated. She was proud of her plan; “Look mommy, I made sand – come sit here let's play.” For a moment I thought about the mess, and the waste. Then I smiled (must have been the medication), declined her offer and went off to find a camera. I acted the way my husband would I thought. Here she was making a mess of terrible proportions and I thought it was a photo opt.

Well I took the pictures. My husband came home took in the mess and asked where the camera was. (See told you!) It was only when she managed to empty a packet of coconut that he thought this has gone too far.

He invited the dogs to come and play with Mia in the sand, and they all had a merry time. It was only when it was cleaning time that the reality hit all of us. Mia sulked because no one had time to play, we were all busy cleaning. She could also not understand why we needed to clean her sand from the kitchen, I mean it is clean sand – look it's white ALL of it.

Well ultimately I took her to the room and explained that what she did was very innovative; and that she made a very good plan. Yet if she wanted to play in sand in the house in future she should maybe ask me then we could make a plan together to get it done in a way that would not take hours to clean. She understood. Although she might not understand the waste she incurred in the baking ingredients, she does understand that there will not be baking days or that if she does something on this scale in future it would cost us valuable time to clean which we could have spend with her.

Did we handle this correctly, I think that there were a number of ways to handle this differently, but none of these would have taught her anything of additional value. In the end she got the message yet she understand that innovation is good. That things can have multiple purpose, but that moderation could be applied to minimise impact.

Did she really learn all these at nearly 3? I can't guarantee that; but I can guarantee that she will be innovative in future. That to me is worth a lot more than a clean kitchen.