How Babies Teach Us

Posted by Kate Beswick
March 4, 2008

Baby Talk

There were many things I wasn’t prepared for as a new parent. Mostly though, I wasn’t prepared to have a colicky baby. I think I was secretly hoping that I would get one of those babies that never cries. Instead, I got my daughter, who only knew how to cry. Yes, I found out when she was three weeks old that my baby was colicky.

At first, I was very frightened. I was very nervous around crying babies. I didn’t know what I would do if I couldn’t make them stop crying. I think that’s why I had her first. Through her colic, she taught me that it was okay if I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have to have all the answers all the time and there would be many times in the future when again, I didn’t know how to make something better. She also taught me that my fear about not being able to make her stop crying would come second to me. My biggest concern would be about her. I was more worried that she was in such terrible pain and I couldn’t help her than I was about my own silly fears about what people would think of me if I couldn’t even get my own baby to stop crying.

We all learn things when we become parents. Even if we’re learning the same principle such as, “I never knew I could love someone so much,” we learn it in a different way. This is because our kids are the ones that teach us. And they teach us these things in their own unique way. Learning that it was okay not to have all the answers all the time was the first thing that my daughter ever taught me. She is two now and I still carry that lesson with me. So although it took months of neither of us sleeping at all, and many days when I’m sure we both had headaches, I will always be extremely grateful for my very colicky baby. She taught me something that a quiet baby never could have.

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Babies, Baby Tips, Parenting

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