Baby is cute. Some are naughty, some are like an angel, some are unpredictable and the others are predictable. Why am I talking about babies? Recently, since my wife is expecting, I read some books about pregnancy, and we took prenatal course to prepare us when the time comes. We hope to be ready when the baby comes. I try to learn many things that I can about newborn and what to expect during this pregnancy and later on delivery. But I’m sure, no matter how ready I feel, when the time comes, some things will catch me by surprise. I hope to at least prepare what I can prepare for now, because I can’t predict what kind of baby I will get.
In life, we should learn from baby. They don’t have any worry on what happen tomorrow. They just look at you and wait what you’ll do. Of course, sometime baby will make noise to get your attention and to get what they want. Sometimes, we teach them what they can or can’t have, no matter how hard they asked. Same thing for us, we sometimes behave like a baby. We cry or make noise so that we can get something that we want. Sometimes, we forget those feeling because we feel that we can fulfill what we want because we have power and money to fulfill it. But, we forget to rely on our ‘parent’ to provide that. We forget to ask whether it’s okay or not. We just try to have what we want to find out that we don’t really needs it. Is it bad? It will be bad when you use it as you want and when it consumed your life because of it. In this post, I want to share on what I learn from the courses and from the book that I read in terms on how to relate to others. I learn 3 things that we can learn from a baby and apply it to our social life. It might be more than this, but these are the 3 things that you can do to improve your social skill:
1. Respect and understand the person
If you have a small kid, you’ll have more experience than me. From what I read, new parents, will try to feed the baby when they are crying. Is it sound true to you? I’ll be the new parents in a few more months and I feel that it might be true. Because it seems like the most logical things, right? Usually the baby will cry when they are hungry. Turns out it’s not always. every baby is like a tiny person with unique temperaments and limited way of communicating. So they will cry whenever they feel hungry, annoyed, worry, dirty (due to the pampers…), etc. How do I know what’s the difference? you might know more about this than me, I’ll be finding out the difference later when the baby arrive.
Likewise, when we interact with somebody, we need to give the same respect and try to understand that person. Everyone is different. As much as we want to treat everyone the same, it only makes us stressed out to change that person. The sooner you accept that, the better you will feel. I have seen some people seems to be there with the purpose to annoy me. everything that he do is annoying. I’m still learning in this area, when I accept that his behavior is his default behavior, I took less offense. because I know that he doesn’t have any mean to make me suffer. It’s just that it is a normal behavior. At least, you have an option not to interact with that person.
2. Be patient with what you’re expecting
If you know the traditional way of breastfeeding, you’ll be amazed at how patience the baby is. When a baby is born, and when he/she want to drink milk the first time, he’ll learn on where to find the “source” and will try to drink. if there’s nothing, he’ll wait on it. I don’t know more than this, but Anyway, when I know about this, traditionally, the baby is taught to be patience. When the baby suckle and he/she can’t find anything, the baby will wait patiently until it comes. I guess, in some hospital, they promote on feeding the baby with formula milk, because it’s faster and easier. It is convenient, but it also teach the baby to expect everything in an instant.
Likewise, for the good things in life, takes time. You might have read some news about some people who won lottery and then fell bankrupt or live worst than before (you can read one of them in here). the saying of “easy comes, easy goes” is very true. When you don’t know the value of something, you tends to do things as you like. That’s why, it is not surprising for the second or third generation that made the family fortune goes to the drain because the parents was working hard and their children to just enjoy it. Remember that for everything that you have, it takes some sacrifice. It might feel not much for you or even your parents, but when you are not learning the value of the item, no matter how cheap the item is, you’ll lose it.
3. Slow down
Earlier, I mentioned that when the baby needs something, he/she will cry. How can we find out what the baby needs from the cry? You can find out by listening to the cry. I believe that the parents will know more about this. I learned that before you give something, you must listen to the cry or any communication that the baby has to you. You might think the baby is hungry and you try to feed her but she rejects it, because what she wants is for you to change the diaper.
It is interesting how from a cry, baby can communicate different thing for you. Likewise, before you assume what somebody needs, try to listen first. This days, we are thought not to be patience. When we want entertainment, we just switch on TV, or listen to radio, or play games from our smartphone. We have our own answer on what people need before they finish communicating what they need. It seems like we are reloading our thoughts and/or arguments instead of listening on that person. Listen first on what the people has to say before making conclusions. You might missed something and might be able to learn something from that person after you listen the whole thing. we are most probably not a newscaster or a reporter that able to state a news clearly and straight to the point, so slow down to listen first. I know it is hard, because we have lost the excitement of waiting for something because most of the thing that we want or need can be satisfied almost instantly. But learn to slow down whenever you can, because that’s will help us to ease our mind and to learn better.
Question: What else can we learn from new generation that will help us to improve our life?
Proverbs 1: 8-9 – Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
