To my children our family is the most normal in the world. It is the only family that they really know, we are the only parents they have and so our little home is their world and the way the world should be. That being so I am always conscious of what things my little cherubs are picking up from our world and regarding as normal. For example; it is completely acceptable to walk around in odd socks but it is not acceptable to leave the table before everybody is finished. It is completely acceptable to have a bath every second day but it is not acceptable to sleep with socks on. These are the types of things that they learn, not by us teaching them but just by them being a part of our family.

Husband works from home and so when he ‘goes to work’ he goes into his study and sits in front of a computer. Wrigglebot decided that he wanted to ‘go work’ so he pulled a chair next to Husband, who obligingly turned on a paint program on the spare computer for Wrigglebot. ‘No, me work,’ Wrigglebot exclaimed and so a word processor had to be on and he began to type, this was work. So for Wrigglebot now work is going into Daddy’s office and typing on the computer. Husband cooks dinner every day, Wrigglebot’s Pop cooks dinner when we go over there, so now it is normal for the man to do the cooking.

In many different ways each day we are creating a new normal, a new reference point for our kids to navigate the world with and while that is exciting it is also a scary thought. I have two more years before Wrigglebot has a greater connection to other people through kinder and school, two more years to further establish a new normal. A new normal of creativity and caring, a new normal of fun and learning, a new normal of respect and cleanliness (sounds silly but cleanliness would be nice.) Come to think of it maybe this new normal is more of an old normal, the normal of my grandparents, that wouldn’t be so bad, except for the husband working out of the home and the wife doing the cooking and the house being spotless and more children.  No, actually our normal is nothing like my grandparents normal, thank goodness!

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family by chelle