I love my kids soooo much, as most parents do. Not only because they're mine and hubby's creations and tend to embody our characteristcs and personas but also because they are the most honest beings - reminding me of my imperfections and what I need to be a better parent. I hate to say this but just recently my daughter brought out an area of parenting skills that needed attention. She taught me that it is important for us parents to .... Let the kids find what interests them, what sparks their mojo, hone on it and help them develop them.
She has taught me that it is important to listen to them....like really listen! As parents, we need to actively seek to identify our child's natural interests. It's important not to be that 'stage mom' or 'stage parent' and let your child get involved with activities that you the parent would want them to participate in. Let them lead the way. And once you've identified their interests, then get on board and begin to nurture their interest and encourage them.
My daughter has a lot of interests - from the traditional girlie things like dressing up like princesses to things that I sometimes didn't really care for like playing soccer. But she quickly managed to teach me that it really wasn't about me....Most recently, actually not so recently, I discovered...actually that's a lie! She kept on throwing hints that she was interested in a sport that I was particularly not too fond of - Horseback riding! Yes, child! So you ask why wasn't I too fond of that idea? Well, it's quite simply....After all the different sports out there to be passionate about, why did my daughter have to go with the most expensive sport ever???! It started probably 3 years ago (Mind you, she'll be 6 in October 2013) when I noticed that she was so fascinated with anything that belonged to the 'horse-like' family - you name it, donkeys (well not really donkeys), ponies, unicorns, horses and etc. to the point that I would catch myself scolding her to quit either galloping and/or neighing like a horse! She knew every cartoon that featured horses, donkeys and ponies from Shrek to My Little Pony to Horseland! After that it went from asking Santa for a rocking horse, to purposely going to watch Disney on Ice just to get a toy horse from the Disney movie Tangled to wanting to go watch live polo games to...... I mean you name it. As time went on, I couldn't continue ignoring the rants and raving about wanting to start horseback riding. She did a good job to constantly remind me it had to happen now. So yes, it finally clicked and I had to succumb!
She taught me that when a child has both an interest and a talent in a particular interest area, that talent can and should be continually developed with the help of committed parents and teachers. Because trust me, she made it a point to let everyone especially her friends and teachers have an ear-full of her infatuation with horses too.
So in an effort to encourage and nurture my child's 'new-found-interest', I began to listen more. So we signed her up for horseback riding lesson. Now just as I suspected, this was no easy and cheap sport by a long shot. We happen to find a good horse park, Chastain Horse Park, that catered to training children of that age. The lessons cost us $303 a month which equates to $75 a session, where a session is only 30 mins/week! Yikes! That's a whole second mortgage!
Taking her to her lessons and watching her riding her horse, a white female horse called GAL, I was so intrigued and elated to see her light up and smile from cheek-to-cheek. She was genuinely happy. Her whole persona lit up. She took directions so well. I found myself wanting to learn and understand more about this sport. It was at that point that I realized that it was imperative that I got on the 'band wagon' and 'got with the program' literally. It came to me that in doing so, as parents we could unlock our child's potential and pave the way for her enjoyment and success in everything!
Now I needed to research some more on the sport in order to support my daughter. So I determined that the next step was to get her draped and looking the part. I had to learn the lingo before I understood what items to buy for her to wear.
So off to the store we went. Come to find out, the whole of Atlanta or better yet Georgia just has only 2 horse back riding stores!! We ended up with the Atlanta Saddlery. My daughter was just too psyched for this.
DID YOU KNOW: Ponies are NOT baby horses? Ponies are short horses and baby ponies or baby horses are called foals? As part of the lessons, the rider has to train the horse how to be obedient and responsive to its rider (Dressage). Gear-wise, a rider would need a riding helmet, riding gloves, riding pants called breeches, jodhpurs, and jeans, riding boots (tall boots vrs paddock (short & smaller boots)) and riding half-chaps. For those that may be interested, the average costs of some of these items are as follows: riding gloves ~$10, riding half-chaps ~$35, riding jeans breech ~$40, riding boots (paddock boots) ~$90+, equestrian riding helmet ~$50+
Next step: Find her some horse riding shows, polo shows to let her understand where this could lead her and how this could possibly pay off, lol.
What can I say................................. THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE!!!!!!
