Be kind….rewind

Last week, we marked another milestone for our family with Anna’s second birthday. Leading up to this special day there was the usual retail therapy for mum and dad to buy gifts for Anna (or things that we really want for ourselves but feel less guilty buying when it’s ‘for’ Anna); organising her birthday party; and, also other activities around birthday week (not sure if you knew this already but we celebrate birthdays for a whole week in my family).

I also thought it was time to update Anna’s 2 baby books: one chronicles her first year and the second is our ‘time capsule’ for Anna – a collection of notes, advice and words from my friends which we’ll give to Anna when she’s older.

One of these notes was from my colleague Zac and it talks about the importance of being kind – whether it is being kind to other people, to the environment, to animals, etc. And I couldn’t agree more.

Reading comments on news articles and forums is one of my guilty pleasures. And it never seizes to amaze me how unkind people are to one and another. Hiding behind the anonymity of avatars, people dare say things that they would never utter in person.

More evident of this behaviour than anywhere else online is on parenting forums. It saddens me to see parents argue and point their digital fingers at each other over every minuscule choice: breast feeding, weaning, gaps between each child, diet, toys, sleeping habits, dummy…

As parents, we should be supportive and respectful of each other and our choices. Because it is not ok to go up to a person on the street and make a nasty comment about their choice of clothing, sexual orientation, career – then why is it ok to do so to fellow parents who are also facing the same challenges of raising little human beings?

One thing that I hope we’ll be able to teach Anna is that being kind shouldn’t be a type of self censorship or an after-thought, it should be the norm, the first course of action, standard operating procedure, whatever you want to call it.

So happy birthday to our little girl, we love you more than words can explain and we hope you like your Blue Planet DVD box set!