From Innocence to Experience

May 28, 2013

"Babies make love stronger, nights shorter, bank balances smaller, homes happier, clothes dirtier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for." I recently found this quotation, by an unknown author, and I found it to really hit home with me. Babies change our lives in such wonderful ways.

But time passes so quickly, and before you know it they are leaving the "safe" fold of home to attend day care, nursery school, junior kindergarten and so on. They go from the sanctuary of our homes, where we can control their interactions, health and safety, in essence, we swaddle them and protect them from the harshness of the world, to having to let go to some degree.

Now of course, at some point, this is a necessary transition, as children need to experience developmental learning both socially and academically. We all did it: but maybe this is part of my problem, for like all adults, I have a storehouse of forgotten memories, both pleasurable and painful, that are unlocked by the experience of parenting.

We want other children to be kind, teachers to be knowledgeable and empathetic and we want coaches to be fair and understanding when dealing with our children. We want the world to be a happy not harsh a place for them.

Robert Blake once wrote in 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' that "Childhood is a time and a state of protected innocence". As parents and grandparents we try to make the transition from innocence to the experience the world brings as gentle as possible.