(Adapted from a post to our private Instagram group from December, 2022. Session families, join to read them all…occasionally, I share an older favorite here.)
I use this phrase often to mean that the things we need/want/hope for our children to learn/do/internalize develop–eventually, with our continued commitment to them (both to the things and to our children).
It applies to so many things! Off the top of my head, in three ways to this photo–
- eventually, a child will be interested in this work (it’s on our shelves right now!)
- eventually, a child will be able to tell us this animal’s name
- eventually, a child will be able to place the whales in order by size and name their colors
- eventually, a child will be able to fit all five into the puzzle in order
and also–
- eventually, a child will put on her own shoes
- eventually, a child will sit through an entire book
- eventually, a child will sleep all night
- (eventually, a child will drive himself to high school…ask me how I know!)
This phrase is sort of a version of the other one we’ve all heard: “The days are long but the years are short.” (100% true, if sometimes not my favorite thing to be told when I was exhausted with a preschooler and a baby!) It’s also, more simply, a version of what my pediatrician told my mom during my toddler years: She won’t go to college in diapers.
It seems now as if we’re repeating/guiding/modeling/doing in the same ways over and over again, but one day almost like magic, the thing we’ve been worrying or frustrated about has suddenly been solved by the child.