Your baby is smarter than you assume
My parenting experience consists of being the father to a 15-month old boy, so I’ve got tons of space to learn. But here it is:
Your baby is smarter than you assume, and he or she will appreciate it if you treat them as such.
I’m not going to review the science of object permanence or documentaries about language acquisition (to be honest, I haven’t watched them). Instead, I am going to share a few observations I was fortunate enough to make while trying my very hardest to be a patient and present father to my son.
The world is new — Narrate Your Actions
Everything, and that means everything he experiences is new. He went from a warm, dark womb to a cold, bright, noisy world. Everything from being strapped into a diaper to entering a coffee shop must be extremely overwhelming.
So whenever I was doing something to care for him, I did my best to narrate my actions. I didn’t expect him to know what I was saying; just hear me consistently, calmly, and gently saying “now I’m going to put your right arm through the sleeve; now I’m going to put a hat on” in time with my actions. He had been overhearing my voice for weeks before he was born, and I believe that provided him an anchor amidst the…
