A little bit of negative emotions

I would say I am a kind gentle parent. I am calm and composed as much as possible and try not to hold her back from experiencing the world unless it is severely dangerous. And when it is time I need to say 'no' I explain it to her. Even though she might resist a little eventually she gets it. I can proudly say that after minutes of debate, we come to terms, and there is mutual understanding between us. And I am still talking about me and my toddler here. 

You might wonder what I'm talking about. It's nothing complicated. All I do is show her the respect she deserves and ensure she is given an equal opportunity to make her points. Mind you, she is 3&1/2.

This story is about her ignorance and how she learned her lessons. It had nothing to do with me intentionally teaching her a lesson. 

She loves school

We were going through numbers from 1 to 20. She always skipped 15, and 17, in the sequence. I simply would make her repeat it after me. It never bothered her to correct herself because I did not force it on her. Today one of her friends who is a little older came over and they were playing. Randomly they were shouting numbers and out of habit, Nabha missed 15 and 17. Her friend who is equally innocent, started laughing at her mistake. And she corrected My baby then and there. For the older kid, it was silly. But it touched my baby where it was supposed to. She felt a little embarrassed, she felt a little angry, she was a little jealous all because her friend knew it and she didn't. That made my baby learn the correct sequence of numbers. I am sure she will not forget it now. 

I am so proud of my baby at this point. I could see all the negative emotions in her eyes and in her body language and raised voice. But even with all that, she was composed and never told her friend off. She accepted what she didn't know and most importantly she learned. She learned not just the sequence of numbers but how to deal with her emotions. She might still be ignorant which will take a lot of experience in life to get over, but at this point, she knows some people know more than you and you need to learn from them if you need to be better. 

So bottom line is, life is not a piece of cake. A little bit of negative emotions, healthy competition, and a learning mindset will push you forward to make you a better version of yourself.