"Whenever you're ready..."

After a year of staying mostly at home, with the state poised to open on June 15th, and with the whole family fully immunised with either Moderna or Pfizer, we all thought that we're pretty much in the clear to go outdoors (aka shopping malls). Since Anna suggested that we visit this newly opened mall called City Centre at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, we decided to see what it's about.

The biggest draw for us was the fake grass area in the middle of the mall's open space. We could put the wee one on the lawn and let him practice walking without worrying about animal poop and mud. However, we didn't realise how crowded the lawn could be because we had thought that it was bigger than it actually was.

The wee one has never been in a big crowd before, thanks to COVID-19 keeping him from seeing other people (including fellow babies). Naturally, he was overwhelmed by the number of people surrounding him.

So when I first placed him on the grass, he refused to go anywhere. He just started clinging to me and watching adults chatting and children running around. My mom and my sister encouraged me to walk away from my child to encourage him to crawl after me (typical of mainstream parenting approaches). However, after reading about gentle parenting and responsive parenting approaches, I decided to stay put with my son and let him get used to the surroundings. I told him that he could stay beside me until he was ready to play. I didn't know if he understood what I had said. I do know, though, that he feels safest at my side.

For a few minutes, he was playing around beside me. But after seeing younger children crawling and toddling about, he decided to join in on the fun and started crawling after Val and Mommy. This shows that my son was developing self-confidence slowly but surely. He cannot walk yet but I'm not concerned at the moment because he is constantly attempting it and stretching his limits. He'll walk soon enough, whenever he's ready.