Written = Shin Ji-hyeon (mother of two children working hard to improve children’s eating habits and self-development)
When you raise a child who is smaller than your age, there are bound to be quite a few funny episodes related to it. The first time I experienced it, I was just sad and upset, but after repeating similar experiences in the flowing time, I now reach a stage where I am not just sad, but also funny and sad.
Among them, I would like to share two funny episodes that I recently experienced. If she is a mother raising a child who is smaller than her peers and who is at the bottom of the list for infants and toddlers, she seems to be able to fully sympathize with her.
[ 에피소드 1 ]
Not long ago, on a sunny weekend, my husband and I took our 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old second son to a small park near our house. Other than us, families with children were having a leisurely time. While my husband was away on the phone for a while, I was in charge of the two children, and soon my son ran to one of them and greeted him.
The friend whom I introduced as a classmate looked like an older brother when my son stood next to him. As I wrote in the last article, it was sad but not surprising that my son’s friends were also taller than my son because he was the second to record the bottom 1% in weight in the recent infant examination after his sister (!).
Being a friend of the younger brother, the first three of them seemed to have developed an inner intimacy, chasing and chasing each other and having fun. In the meantime, my husband returned from the phone call, and I secretly told him that I was excited to meet my friend.
Then the husband, who was a little excited and tried to calm down his son who was closing the distance with his friend, said this.
“Green, you can’t do that to your brother.”
… … Brother?……
It was only after about 3 seconds that I realized the situation. The child I called ‘friend’ was misunderstood by her husband as the first friend, not the second. At first glance, he didn’t have a big difference in height from our first, and he was quite different from the second, so of course I thought he was the first friend.
Every time I sighed worrying that my first child was smaller than his peers, he was my husband who showed his composure by saying, “It’s okay, everything will grow up later.” However, I knew that the first one was small, but on the day when she directly confirmed the reality that even a 5-year-old was suspected of being the same age as hers, her husband seemed to have a little bit of trouble.
[ 에피소드 2 ]
This was also a while ago. Our family of four went out to eat at a barbecue restaurant after a long time. There is a playroom for children there, so the brother and sister who wanted to eat quickly and play there finished their meal by making good performances.
As I was watching the children playing happily in the playroom, my daughter, who was friendly, and a girl who was exceptionally playful and responsive stood out. I thought that my daughter was really lucky to meet her good sister and have fun because her height and physique made it clear that she was her older sister.
And on the way home, I asked my daughter about the girl she played with, and she said:
“I’m a friend who goes to piano academy together.”
“……!?……”
My daughter’s friends also don’t rule out the possibility that they are the same age as my child when I see children I don’t know much about because they are bigger than my child. It was great. But you are the same age!!!
Looking back later, I think he was on the big side compared to his peers. Therefore, a two-shot with my child, who is on the small side compared to his peers, was unlikely to be seen as a friend of the same age.
Although, of course, I was wrong in predicting her age, which I thought would be her older sister, but I think it was not wrong as much as I felt that my daughter was lucky that day. It was because she was a kind and kind child who took care of her little friend of the same age more than herself at the eye level and gaze of that friend throughout the play. Wasn’t it really great luck that our daughter, who had such a child as her friend, was able to meet such a friend by chance at her meat restaurant’s playroom and have an exciting time?