The other day I asked my Instagram followers to ask their children what they’d do if they were King or Queen for a day. As predicted, I got some brilliant answers from children of all ages. While some of them were hilarious (“Peas are against the law”) there were also so many answers about kindness and helping, so much so that I got a bit misty eyed reading some of them. I discussed the question with my own family, with some predictably silly answers.
What always amazes me is how insightful children can be (even when they’re toddlers) and the more Honor grows up, the more I love knowing what she thinks about. If she were queen for a day she would look after all the animals and have tea with her fairies. Further discussion involved talking horses, pizza and ‘wearing a nice dress’ so…not too dissimilar to what my own answer would be to be honest.
Animal care, enough food for everyone, no sad people, no spiders and an abundance of cake were all popular answers (again, all stuff I can get on board with) but what really showed is how amazing children’s imaginations are. Creativity, independence and kindness are all important values to teach our children but it would seem they pick up these traits way earlier than I realised. I’m often working at my desk while Honor (who is two) plays with her toys and the conversations she has with them are just brilliant; I hear her repeating things she’ll heard throughout the day. The depth of her imagination is huge and I often have to be careful not to interrupt a teddies PTA meeting.
I’m teaching her the values that my parents taught me. There is therefore a lot of silliness in our house, a lot of dancing, a lot of laughter and a lot of hugs. The growing independence (including choosing her clothes) is such fun to watch and the way her imagination works fascinates me. Mackenzie and I were talking about what we’d do if we were King or Queen for a day and our answers didn’t stray too far from those I’d read from my stories. It just proves that we’re all kids, just some of us are grown up ones.
What Honor Is Wearing: Shirt, Dungarees and Jacket all by Il Gufo
xx,
