The Power of Words

Things to do with Kids: Parenting Inspiration 

One of the best things about being a parent is that there is simply no time to worry about your own insecurities and how the world perceives you. You just have to envision that almost cliché image of a young mother, toddler in hand and a baby on the hip, with spit up on her shirt, her messy hair in a bun and those tell-tale dark circles under her eyes, getting into her car to go to the shops or to do the morning school run, to realise that she is simply past caring what people think about her. And that is amazing!

It is amazing because at some stage we all need to grow up and we all need to face our inner demons and simply move on and the best time to do this is when you become a parent. I mean, who wants to project all these issues onto their children, right? So, instead of focusing on how the world perceives us, we as parents rather spend the little bit of spare energy we have, to focus on how we can better ourselves for our children so that we can become the best example to them.

Shaping Personalities with Words 

Being a blogger, my world is made up of words. I love words and beautiful phrases and when I experience a strong emotion (whether good or bad) or a fun and exciting adventure, words float around in my head, waiting to be written down. I am therefore extremely sensitive to, and aware of, the power of words and how they can influence those around us.

The one thing (and there are many) I am trying to better within myself is to try and use only positive words. I am not talking about sugar coating or manipulating a difficult situation or a hard truth (these need to be dealt with as directly and truthfully as possible), I am talking about substituting those negative words and phrases which we all use in our daily lives, such as ‘stupid mistake’, ‘dumb’, ‘you better love me or else…’ with positive words and phrases like ‘you are so clever, this was just a silly mistake’ or ‘I love you because...’.

Positive vs Negative Words and Expressions 

Think back to a time when someone close to you asked you in anger ‘why do you ask such dumb questions?’ and think about how that made you feel. Think about that time when someone said, ‘if you act like that, no-one will love you’ and remember the hurt that these words imparted on you. Now imagine being the one to cause that hurt in your loved ones, or your children (who will have these words thundering in their heads until they grow up).

If there is one thing I wish we could change about the world, it would be to just forget that words like stupid, dumb, fat or ugly (to name just a few) even existed - that everybody’s vocabulary consisted solely of beautiful, kind and strong words, such as brave, intelligent, compassionate, wonder and peace, words which lighten the soul and brighten a heart.

My little Bean just turned two, and he is talking a mile a minute, soaking up every single word and phrase he hears and although we have made some parrot-toddler mistakes (he has inadvertently learned a swear word or two, or three), I am trying my best to feed his thirst for words with a positive vocabulary, because his happy, positive chatter is like food to my soul.