Your Precious Little Snowflake—A Rant
January 10, 2014
Posted By: Shaunescy
My daughter was at preschool this morning and she made a snowflake out of a coffee filter. It's nice. Not a work of art that I want to keep forever, and if you have school-aged kids you know how their projects accumulate and threaten to slide like an avalanche of painted hand-print and paper cup art, out of every drawer that you've designated for them. But I like this one because it is keeping her entertained. She likes how it floats down to the ground slowly.
But it brought to mind a personal peccadillo of mine. On mommy websites there is a phrase that gets bandied about regarding the naval-gazing adoration that parents have of their own offspring, 'Your Precious Little Snowflake.' "Some people think that their precious little snowflake can do no wrong," or "Foolish parents who think their precious little snowflake is more important than herd-immunity." ugh.
Regardless of where you stand on whatever issue that the mommy-war mongers are trying to get you fired up about, this is a really stupid and snide thing to say.
I don't know what I find more irritating about it. A) The fact that snowflakes are a pretty darn good metaphor for children. They are made up of the same building blocks. They have similar tolerances and appearances and shapes: Hexagonal plates and pillars vs. two eyes, one nose, a mouth underneath. Yet, they are all together in an an arrangement that is completely their own.
Or, B) That I think as a parent it is top priority that I do find my children special, important, unique and wonderful. I simply must, because of all the people on the planet they are the ones who will drive me the most bananas.
Like they are doing tonight. They pestered and prodded until I made a pile of snowflakes for them to throw over the banister. One was simply not enough. They wanted to play together. Lovely, right?
It is, until you take into account the fact that they have been shouting "Avalanche!" each time they do it. My house is echo-y. My brain hurts. And 2 hours of outdoor-voices indoors? 100% crazy making. And this is why nature makes us love our kids with utter abandon.
Oxytocin anyone? That's the hormone that your body releases when you have the baby. It's the love hormone, the one that lets you see every color of the rainbow in each and every strand of their newborn hair when you sit in the sunlight. It's the rainbows-unicorns-and sparkly snowflake hormone and I never want to lose that feeling.
So I will admire their mastery of floaty filter physics and I will enjoy the total zeal with which they throw themselves into this play, even with my hurt-y ears and brain. And then, under the cover of darkness as they sleep, I will toss the avalanche of paper snowflakes into the trash. I will become ninja-mommy-detritus-remover, because like all children, mine are not only precious little snowflakes, they are also vicious and rabid hoarders.
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All my best, BunnyFufu ~ The Housewife
