Parenting – Beauty and pain in letting go

I felt this pain, a happiness together with gratitude and sadness, when I stopped breast feeding my daughter. It was a beautiful experience.

I was a bit worried about how it will be for her, and didn’t expect those mixed feelings I went through, that I heard about from some other mothers. My daughter accepted it with no stress, no problem at all. For some time, I was thinking about stopping breast feeding and I talked to my daughter about how sometime soon it will be the time when she will no longer have this kind of sweet comfort available, but she will still always have me around being there for her. I prepared her for that moment, she knew it was coming. One night I felt I made a decision this is the night. I told my beautiful baby girl (14 months old) that tonight she will go to sleep without breast feeding and asked if that was OK. I kissed her good night and her dad stayed with her until she went to sleep. I went outside on the balcony and cried of both happiness and sadness at the same time. She did not cry at all, she didn’t try to get her nightcap, she was calm and accepting, and I was so happy and thankful for that experience. I felt like I have lost something by gaining so much more in return. I felt like this is it, next step it will be she is off to college or something… I felt the separation in its beauty and pain, I realized that that pain was my fear of letting go and I accepted the inevitability of change.

Next time I felt a little bit like that was when my daughter went to kindergarten. This time it was a little bit harder for us both, but we went through it, each by her own and together with each other… It was the time for me to finally commit myself to my work, this was the beginning of a new phase…

When my daughter started school, I felt joy and gratitude, and an enjoyment of being a parent together with my husband watching our child growing up and becoming more and more independent.

Thank you, my darling ❤️, for being you, for being in my life, for teaching me important lessons of love, teaching me patience and acceptance, and for giving me an opportunity to grow and be a better version of myself so that I can be of a better service to you, your father, our family and friends, and the rest of the world. I am happy, and in peace and love, and I wish the same to everyone!

* Featured painting is one of my computer graphics, titled “Separation”. I created it when my daughter started kindergarten.

My ART

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What was that, Madam? Not the playground, you say?

Some of us weren’t allowed to be children so we don’t allow it to others.

Do you remember your childhood? Were you constantly stopped in your efforts for your own good? Did you hear the word NO a lot? How did that feel? How does it feel now?

In my case, I was “protected” a lot together with explanation “You can’t do that…You are too little, or you are too weak…” So I grew up believing I can’t do whatever I really want to do, and I stop myself a lot before I even try.

Now I am a parent to a beautiful little girl, and I am doing my best, as my parents did their best, to “protect” her. But at least I have come to understanding that it is not my job to protect her but to guide her and to take care of her in the way that she can learn her own limitations as well as her strength. I put my own fear and worries aside as much as I can to free her from my own problems, and let her learn from her own mistakes. Well, obviously you can’t just let your child try to fly through the window, but you can talk to them and sincerely and truthfully explain the situation and why it is dangerous. I have soooo much debating with my kid. It is how I practice patience and communication skills, and I thank her for that ❤️.

And now back to the title of this post… When my daughter was 2.5 / 3 years old, she was learning how to ride that bicycle with only wheels, no pedals… So we went to the park one day, as many times before and after, and on our way to there, my kid accidentally pushed herself with the bike onto one middle age woman, a little bit older than me, and she started giving us (me) the lesson… Our immediate apology wasn’t accepted and she went on and on how the street isn’t the playground and got really angry and yelling how she is also a mother and she would not and did not allow her children to ride the bike anywhere outside the park or playground… She got really worked up over that… My daughter was slightly upset and I just explained to her that she has to be more careful and aware of what is in front of her and around her all the time… And that was that. She had never made the same mistake, if it was in her ability.

But the anxious feeling was there with me still some time after that event. So, I needed to express it on the “paper” (in this case on the screen) and started painting the featured title painting (shown here is a segment of the original) and I ended up expressing all the feelings from my childhood when I was told what I did wrong without the compassion and an explanation, with only anger, shame and fear. This is probably how I learned to stop myself from enjoying the moment of exploring new things and building confidence and developed the fear and being overcautious about everything…

Probably the same feelings went to the surface of that woman and she couldn’t do anything but to let it out and reflect it on us. So, I realized she couldn’t be compassionate about it because she too was probably judged and couldn’t get in touch with her inner child.

Some of us weren’t allowed to be children so we don’t allow it to others.

My ART

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Scripts from Neverland: The power of manifestation, myth or truth?

Here’s how it’s done… If you really want something, you can make it happen. You need to accept the current factual situation that you don’t have it, and accept the idea, i.e. the possibility that you may never have it, and be OK with yourself in that probability…

My daughter M (6yo) wanted a gold medal in judo because it’s the only one she doesn’t have yet. Not because it’s the best medal there is, but because she would have a complete with it. The other day there was the judo tournament. M didn’t want to go because she was afraid that she would be the smallest again and that she would again have to fight with bigger kids and lose. We explained to her that no one expects her to win, let her think about not giving up and try, let her do her best and enjoy the event.

She took heart and still fought. She was the smallest and fought with a heavier category (they say if the difference is up to half a kg, you can try with a heavier category). She lost in both fights, 2:0… She was satisfied with how she fought and was happy and smiling all the time, happy because she was fighting with her friends.

At the awards, they called her the only one from her category and awarded her a gold medal, and then in the next category she got a bronze because there were only 2 other girls with her in that category… No one expected that, least of all her…

Did she get a gold medal? Now she has a set 😉 …

Featured painting shows a detail of my digital painting titled: “Crazy but True”. It celebrates synchronicities in life and the power of manifestation.

My ART

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Children are a reflection of us

Through my own parenting experience, I see and confirm every day what I have learned, which is that children are our mirror, that they totally absorb our energy, our mood, our joy, our sadness, our doubts, our enthusiasm, our peace and our fear.… and they automatically and instantly react to what they feel from us, drawing everything through themselves and experiencing it as their own.

Yesterday, it was not clear to me why my daughter had so much self-doubt in her creativity, and fear that she was drawing wrong, and that she would never be good at drawing, but in fact she creates such wonderful pictures (even according to the template, because her interpretations are more alive and full of spirit). And we as parents encourage and support and advise her the way we should actually advise and support ourselves, because what she feels are essentially my own self-doubts and fears that I am doing wrong and that I might not succeed…

I realized again this morning for the umpteenth time, how we actually influence our children, other people and the environment in general, with what we ARE and what we carry inside us, even though our behavior and what we say is often the opposite to that… The picture that my daughter gave me as a present yesterday (featured photo), welcomed me in front of the monitor this morning and put everything in perspective for me again… And I promise to myself I will listen to all my advices and words of comfort and support that I gave to her yesterday!

What are your thoughts or experiences on the subject?

My ART

Come join me on a self-awareness journey through art :). My art is who I am.

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