Little feet are following

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a mother-daughter calendar — one of those flip-style stand-up versions. It’s called “365 treasured moments for Mothers & Daughters.”
And who was my gift from? My sweet daughter, of course.

When I flipped the page for Jan. 6, I read a quote from Hans Christian Andersen: “Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with short steps.” I love this quote. My first thought was to share it with my friends.

I think we get busy into our day-to-day lives, which seem to be more challenging every day. We get focused on making enough money to pay our bills and save enough to live on after the age of 65. Some of us might refer to it as the rat race and others, like my husband, call it the war zone. He also refers to Dallas traffic in the same way.

We seem to get so busy, we forget about the young eyes watching us. Whether we are parents or grandparents, we have youngsters trying to keep up with, emulate or learn from us and this is what we overlook.

Our children are learning how to parent from the way we parent. They are learning how to treat their wives and husbands from what they see in us.

I know there are times, while raising my children (now grown), when I didn’t set aside enough time to spend with them while they were young. Even so, I sometimes recognize myself in some of their actions and, oddly enough, I see some of my parents as well.

I guess that’s just the way families work. We don’t need to over-think this — just be ourselves while remembering our children and grandchildren are watching and trying to keep up. I think Andersen was on the right track in suggesting we make our way easy to follow — easy enough for youngsters to grasp.