Blooming children

Alison Duff, Founder and Director of Calmababy gives us her thoughts on parenting.

It is often said that caring for a child is like tending a garden, and being a parent is like being a gardener.

Nature serves up an optimistic blueprint for the future landscape. Then time, nurture, nourishment and environmental factors contribute to the overall vista. However, every good gardener knows that despite their hours of toil, sweat, loving attention and patience - the garden blooms in a way they did not envision or expect. The same applies to parents.

We lavish loving attention, willingly sacrifice sleep and attempt to develop the patience of a saint. We spend hours reading books and researching 'parenting' styles to influence the behaviour and development of our little people positively. We often have pre-conceived ideas and hopes for who they will grow up to be. Then when they flourish, they thwart us! They are entirely different from how we imagined they would be. It is almost as if they grow up because of us but also despite us.

In truth, it is not our job to chisel our child into a particular person. Our children do not belong to us. They are born with free will, personality, temperament and spirit that requires love and understanding to thrive.

It is our job to provide a nurturing space that is safe, stable and full of love - a garden where infinite possibilities can blossom

> Find Calmababy at 8 Botolph Bridge Estate, Oundle Rd, Peterborough PE2 9QP. Tel: 01733 707808. www.calmababy.com