"Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional."

He can compromise – sometimes – and bounce back from disappointment… sometimes. All good signs moving forward. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s all too easy, once we start seeing our kid grow and progress, to focus on the next step and forget to enjoy the current one.

This is true of childhood overall, really. Some models of thinking seem to consider the whole experience of being a kid as a kind of warm-up for being an adult, as if the only important aspect of youth is whether or not it gets you prepared for what really matters, when we grow up.

But your time to be a kid matters too. It matters a lot. It’s a period of life in which we discover, explore, enjoy, anticipate, reflect, and a whole lot more. All of which, it’s worth noting, are things we can continue doing as we age, anyway. So don’t let anyone tell you that children are just unfinished adults. And, further, never believe that being a grown-up who gets likened to a “big kid” is in any way a bad thing.