Last weekend Giovanna, LHG and I had a lovely break in the
West Country with his Aunty Carmela and Uncle Simon (formerly named C and S on
this blog, but they’ve told me I’m allowed to name them). The weather was kind
to us and we had a lovely time eating, walking along beaches and getting lost
in a maze. Little LHG enjoyed it all, but among his pleasures was the simple
one of looking in a full length mirror that Carmela had propped up against one wall.
Every time he passed it he’d turn and regard the other baby, lifting his hand
to it, only to find a barrier. I don’t think he’s quite got the idea that it’s
him yet, which apparently comes around the 18 month mark.
Seeing him stare into Carmela’s mirror reminded me of an
incident three or four months back when Pa and I took him into John Lewis to
look at clocks. Next to the clock department they keep the mirrors, big and
small, fancy and simple, so I wheeled him round them to keep him occupied. Poor
soul, he didn’t know where to look first. There were babies everywhere and they
all looked the same. What’s more, they all had a pushchair and a nonna that
looked like his!
What a strange and fascinating place the world must be to a
baby. It makes me wish I could come afresh to it like that, to have that
wide-eyed wonderment every few seconds as some brand new experience is rolled
out. Even the leaves on the trees, waving around in the wind, are an endless
source of wonderment to LHG.
As for the clock, we intended to buy a small mantle-type one
to put on one of the bookshelves in the living room. What we ended up with was a
huge black, distressed clock face to
put on the wall. It sat for a day or two on one end of the L-shaped settee. LHG
kept eyeing it up with relish. At the time he was at the walking-along-holding-on-to-things
stage. Eventually he shuffled his way round from the end of the seating where
his toys were, to where the big round thing sat at fondling level. The
temptation when he reached it was too much and his little fingers stretched out
to pull at the clock hands. At this point he was whisked up and back to his
toys, only to start the process again.
Ah yes, such an endlessly fascinating world for babies, and
so much of it sadly out of bounds.
I loved this. It's so true that children lose their sense of wonder, and the materialistic world we live in with all its artifice accelerates the process. I do worry that children are no longer allowed to interact with the natural world.
ReplyDeleteActually, some of the thoughts you express made me think of Wordsworth and his ideas on childhood imagination and how, somehow, in maturity, we lose that.So many parents make the error of offering too much artificial stimulation, whereas, as you so rightly point out, children can gain so much pleasure and reward from the simplest things. AJ