Act Like a 3-Year Old Today

I have a 3-year old daughter. She is the apple of my eye, charismatic, the love of my life…blah blah blah. She is also very sassy, independent, full of energy and talkative. Did I mention she likes to talk a lot? So, naturally, when I got word that daycare was closing due to covid-19, all I could think about was how was I going to work full time with a 3-year old at home? Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter and was looking forward to spending time with her, I was just feeling a little overwhelmed with the thought of her home all the time, maintaining her schedule, maintaining my schedule, while fulfilling her learning modules. I don’t think I was the only parent that had the fear of God strike them at the beginning.

But…

Over the last few weeks, it has been amazing to see a 3-year old perspective of “the germ.” (as we call it in this house) She understands that we can’t go to daycare or visit her friends. She understands when I tell her that Mimi and Grandma have to wave from their windows or we have to video chat with our aunts and uncles. What has blown me away is that, everyday, she wakes up and is never disappointed that we can’t go to daycare or that she is stuck with mom and dad (who both work full time) for another day. She just takes the day as it comes. As adults, wouldn’t it be great to live life like that? To wake up on the right side of the bed every morning and forget about the troubles from the night before? To start the day and go through the day and just take it as it comes? Since the quarantine, I have been put back in the mindset that nothing is normal anymore so I decided that I would be 3 again and see what happened.

The Experiment: Be a 3-year old again and take the day as it comes

The Outcome: I am exhausted. It felt like every 5 minutes, we were playing a new game or changing our minds about what to wear for dress-up. I have never used more stickers in my entire life. We made a rocket ship out of a cardboard box and ate snacks outside on the hammock.

What I learned: I can’t control everything. I know I can’t live in 3-year old world forever because I have bills to pay and a job to do, but I can also stop worrying about what I can’t control. The germ is out there and I can do what I can do in order to keep my family safe, but I can’t control it. I learned that I can’t control how grown up my 3-year old will be after this, but I can control keeping her imagination and naivety alive by playing make believe and sitting in the sun, eating popsicles.

My challenge to you today is to be 3 again and take the day as it comes. One minute you may be playing candy land and the next, swinging high into the sky. What will happen, will happen. Learn to let go of trying to control everything and only control what you can. I promise it will change your life forever.