“He’s so cute!” remarked a woman observing my two-year-old grandson. “Aww look at him!” Another woman said with warm, squinted googly eyes. And finally, “It’s bigger than he is!” exclaimed a man. What in the world was he doing? He was happily toting his own luggage through an airport. How did he get here?
Now, I’ve had four toddlers in my lifetime. My last one is now a 27-year old. Pouring their own juice into a glass, standing on a chair to help wash the dishes or dropping drinking glasses into a sink were banished tasks in my house at that stage. In fact, so did any task that had the potential for mistakes that I had to fix or clean afterwards - which meant all of them. I’ve watched my elder daughter with her toddler and how she allows him to not only pour his own drinks, make his cereal and select containers of fruit from the refrigerator, but at that airport, I witnessed independence beyond my experiences as a mom. It wasn’t just about being cute (even though he absolutely was) but more about parenting.
His mother gave him complete responsibility for his own suitcase. As the terminal stretched on and on, so did his little legs moving at twice the speed of hers. There he was, walking along, rolling his suitcase behind him the whole way (as an adult would). There was no whining, no complaining about being tired, no meltdown. In fact, every time she offered to roll it for him, he adamantly responded, “I dot it!” [I got it.] When we approached the moving walkway, she encouraged him to get on. He was apprehensive at first, but after she gave him a little pep talk, “Come on, scoot. You can do it!” He took the first step. He and the suitcase landed on their back sides. Rather than give up and stay down, a few more words from mom, and he quickly got up and rode the rest of the way. But back to the suitcase.
Is my grandson exceptionally gifted and on a genius level? Well perhaps I’m a bit biased in saying that he is. But for whatever reason, witnessing a toddler tote his own bag incited joy in people. I overheard squeals of delight, comments about his cuteness and saw huge smiles. At one point, my daughter said, “Come on, Scoot!” As he slowed down to observe the scenery. “Yeah, come on, Scoot, keep up now!” Said a man as he walked along. Everyone who witnessed the scene broke into giggles.
I’m convinced that my daughter’s patience with my grandson and the support she gives him to be independent led up to this moment. It was just something about that little body doing something so grown up, that brought happiness to us all. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
