The Art of Inconvenience
How INCONVENIENCE made my daughters appreciate life.
CONVENIENCE, don’t we all want it in life? Because it makes life so much easier. But mind you, to be always in that state of being doesn’t make us grow and appreciate life or even appreciate the little things we have in life.
As a mama of 2 daughters, I want my girls' life to be easy and not struggle but I know that later in life, it will throw them at a curve ball and if they don’t know how to adjust a convenient situation to inconvenient, they will suffer. So, now that they are still young, me and my husband chose to teach them the little inconveniences in life. And here it goes. . .
AIR-CONDITION: Ahhhhh, that AC during the summertime can be so life-saving and makes your life so easy during the hot humid season. But did you know that since my daughters were little, we chose to only use AC during bedtime so they could sleep better at night? But during the daytime, we make them sweat and feel the hot humidity, We don’t have AC in our living room or their playroom. We open windows for fresh air and we have electric fans when it gets humid. And because our daughters are so used to sweating and humidity, they never complained during summer time especially when we went home to Cebu, Philippines. We never heard our daughters complain over there about how hot and humid Cebu was. It’s because they are so used to it. And I know that later in life, they will appreciate this because it will be so easy for them to adjust.
PATIENCE: Not everyone has this talent, especially young ones nowadays. But we’ve been teaching our girls since they were toddlers how to wait. It was not an easy battle teaching little ones but we were consistent every time, that they learned the art of patience. Now, that they are a little bit bigger, when we told them to wait, they will. And they never complain because they know that if they do, we make them wait more.
BRATTY ATTITUDE: Even me, their own mother has this attitude towards my husband because I got so used to him giving me what I want. But in our daughters' case, THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. WHY?! Because we chose not to accept it and we tell them that it’s never nice to always get what you want in life. We’ve been teaching our daughters that every time they want something, they cannot get it right away. We make them wait. We make them work for it by doing their chores and listening to us very well. Every time we bring our girls to the store, we DO NOT buy them things they want, we explain to them that we don’t have enough money, this way they understand that we are only buying the things we need for the moment. And because our girls are so used to the word NO all the time every time they want something at the store, they never insist every time we say NO. They always say, “Maybe next time, Mama?”. We never experienced meltdowns and hysterical crying at the store with them just because they didn’t get what they wanted. Did you know that my girls only have a few toys at home and only have 1 old iPad that is very slow. We chose this kind of situation for them because we don’t want our girls to be so materialistic and we always want them to play outside every time they have a chance.
ADJUSTING EASILY IN LIFE: Every time life throws us a curve ball, we all have a choice to go with the flow and adjust easily to how to deal with it OR we choose “depression” and drown in our misery. So, on August 2023, my only car for my girls got repossessed due to nonpayment because I lost my job due to my illness. And my girls got so used to having the convenience of having a car to wherever they go, I got so scared for them when we lost our only car. So, I explained to them that for the meantime, we will use public transportation like bus and train or taxi to go wherever we want to go. And to my surprise, my girls adjusted so easily. They loved riding the bus and train, they even did not mind walking few blocks to reach our destination. For them, it was all an adventure. Because my girls are so used to adjust in a situation, it’s an easy transition for them.
RESPECT: Not everyone knows this, too. Entitlement is the NEW TREND now a days with the young ones which I find it so sad. Not realizing that their behaviors will always reflect back to their parents. And again, we’ve been teaching our daughters how to respect everyone they met especially elders. We taught them not to talk fresh and to always be patient when adults talk to each other and not to interrupt. It was not an easy transition but we were so consistent that learned overtime. Now, we always get a feedback from their school teachers and people they met on how respectful they are.
In my 19 years of being here in America, I noticed that so much kids are so spoiled because the parents itself are making their life so much easier for them. Then the parents complains later in life how rude their kids can be. not realizing that they created their own little monsters.
I am very grateful that me and my husband have this knowledge to teach our girls the simple things in life has to offer and that they know how to easily adjust and also, I am very proud that my girls are not bratty and spoiled.
May this article of mine serves it’s purpose to gain knowledge on teaching our kids a few little inconveniences in life because we all know that life is not sunshine and rainbows all the time.
