I'm in New York right now with my 4 y/o daughter and on Saturday we went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. It's a place I grew up going to, and I remember my first visit with my mom when I was around the same age as my daughter is now. I was so excited to take my own kid to the "dino museum", and she was amped too.
Except when we got there, it was crowded and kind of overstimulating to her, and she just kept getting distracted playing with all the screens instead of exploring the incredible 65 million year-old fossils in front of her. I found myself started to get frustrated and annoyed, but I'm happy to say I was able to remember Diego's wise words, roll with the situation, and have fun. I remembered that my kid is 4 years old, that the point of this visit wasn't for her to immediately become some kind of junior paleontologist, and that the real purpose of the day was for us to have a fun day out together, which we did. I noticed eventually that she was actually pretty tired the whole time because we'd had to wake up quite early for the train. Once I realized this and decided to strategically carry her around through the room with the coolest dinosaur fossils (also so she could get a better view), we had a lot more fun and we were able to enjoy this moment in an age and situation-appropriate way.
Sometimes I find that letting go of the expectations also helps me to realistically assess the situation and see what kinds of adjustments might be needed.
I'm in New York right now with my 4 y/o daughter and on Saturday we went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. It's a place I grew up going to, and I remember my first visit with my mom when I was around the same age as my daughter is now. I was so excited to take my own kid to the "dino museum", and she was amped too.
Except when we got there, it was crowded and kind of overstimulating to her, and she just kept getting distracted playing with all the screens instead of exploring the incredible 65 million year-old fossils in front of her. I found myself started to get frustrated and annoyed, but I'm happy to say I was able to remember Diego's wise words, roll with the situation, and have fun. I remembered that my kid is 4 years old, that the point of this visit wasn't for her to immediately become some kind of junior paleontologist, and that the real purpose of the day was for us to have a fun day out together, which we did. I noticed eventually that she was actually pretty tired the whole time because we'd had to wake up quite early for the train. Once I realized this and decided to strategically carry her around through the room with the coolest dinosaur fossils (also so she could get a better view), we had a lot more fun and we were able to enjoy this moment in an age and situation-appropriate way.
Sometimes I find that letting go of the expectations also helps me to realistically assess the situation and see what kinds of adjustments might be needed.
I'm glad you were able to connect to the moment and redirect your energy!