Self-Expression

I feel most people are the most emotionally open they ever will be around the age of two. Just think about it.

You see a child in a grocery store throwing a fit and it's pretty annoying. If you have kids maybe you're just glad it's not YOUR kid, and if you don't, your just glad you DON'T have kids. Yet, whatever anyone thinks about it, that kid is EXPRESSING themselves in a loud way! Everyone knows how they feel because it's written on their face, in their tears, and in their yells.

If a child around the age of two is happy to see you, their whole entire face lights up in a way that makes you feel like you're their best friend ever. Their whole body expresses their excitement as they run up to you, arms thrown open for a hug.

A lot of the kids I work with are like this, and sometimes the amount of emotion-expressing going on in a day wears me out. They cry enough for me to feel I have nothing to complain about!

Yet another part of me sees the value. They are so young their emotions come out unedited and completely honest. They haven't learned to mask their fears, hurts, or love for fear of others. They are so dependent that their deepest needs must be made known by this intense emotion-expression. The value is the honesty, the rawness, the "I need you" factor. They're not afraid to squat down and throw a royal fit if their shoe falls off!

As they get older, they'll be able to put their own shoe back on, buy their own groceries, hug their own children, and learn to more successfully express their emotions as older children and adults. This is my hope when dealing with a two-year old's intense fits. That they would not see my disapproval of their loud fits as a discouragement for self-expression, but that they would see instead a way to more successfully and maturely deal with their emotions. I do not want them to feel their tears, hurts, joys, and laughter aren't appropriate, but only that there a million ways to express emotions, and those don't all include rolling around on the floor and screaming.

In writing this, I am merely considering how sometimes we as adults cover over or forget to emotionally-express ourselves. To let our vulnerable, I need you selves be seen by someone else. I need people. I would hate to think I must conquer this life alone. I'm glad I have people that when I see them, my whole face can light up. I'm glad I have people, that are willing to pick me up off the floor once in a while on a bad day. When I think of how those kids view and depend on me, I am humbled to have earned not only their trust, but the trust of their families. It's just a job, but when I see their faces, it seems to turn into love and smiles, and hugs. And lots of high-fives!