I’ve come to realize that toddlers are incredibly spontaneous in what they say. You can’t treat their words like a binding contract. Kids’ thoughts change constantly, and parents need to stay flexible. When I think about it, do adults always follow through on everything they say? Of course not. We find this perfectly normal when it comes to ourselves – we can rationalize our changes of heart. But little kids can’t clearly explain their reasoning yet, so it’s hard for us to understand what’s going on in their minds. They probably don’t have a clear reason – something just pops into their head.

So don’t expect little ones to automatically do what they hear or stick with every idea they have. If we actually demanded “you just said this, so you absolutely have to follow through,” that would be way too much pressure for them. Cut ourselves some slack, cut our kid some slack, and we will discover lots of interesting things along the way. Watching her grow day by day while we learn to become better parents – there’s something really beautiful about growing together like this.