"Confidence through Small Eyes"

While walking the Malls, I always wondered: "What the heck was that parent thinking, letting their kids walk out the house with that outfit on?" I was right in thinking that the parents obviously had no control with these kids, of course I didn't have kids at the time. But, NOW that I have two kids and one on the way I am ready to take on whatever outfit my kids feel confident with. Besides what else can I do, when we really have no control in what our kids say, do or wear, right? I hope you enjoy this story as much as I got to experience it.

It's Friday evening and we're ready to go for a walk at the mall. As we're walking out , Jazmine our 3 year old grabs her pigeon hat, Yes her pigeon hat and puts it on. At this moment, my Husband and I looked at each other and silently giggled, we were both thinking one thing and one thing only, "I hope she's not planning on wearing that in the mall." Yup, she was! So, I said, "Jazzy you can take it but we'll leave it in the car, ok?" She whines "No, I want to wear it, I made it in school" and Daddy says, "Jazzy you can leave it here and wear it when we get back." She didn't cry, she didn't whine but she gave the most unselfish response a kid could give "But Daddy it will make people Happy." We smiled and carried on to the car with the pigeon hat on.

I was taken back by her confidence, for the simple fact that as we start "maturing" we feel like we have to look and do things according to everyone else's standards.

As we walked the mall, she was mistaken for "angry birds," she was laughed at, stared at, questioned, and Jazmine walked around as if nobody existed except her and her hat. At one point she saw someone laughing and she said, "See, it makes them happy." She was focused on her idea of wearing that hat and she did it confidently. 


At the school she currently attends, they are reading stories from Mo Willems (http://www.mowillems.com). Please grab your child and enjoy the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V10jhsNIMI8


Julia S Gutierrez