I'm sure it's not news to you that bringing up children requires a lot of learning for their parents and care-givers. More and more we're required to manage our souls in a more conscious way.
What I'm particularly thinking about right now are interruptions. Specifically, when little ones are absorbed in play. Of course, there are times when they have to be taken out of their games such as, when dinner will soon be served. It's helpful then if they're given some warning like, 'three minutes more'. And they soon find out this can be used for their own purposes, like for e.g. 'let me play for another three minutes'! Curly-Locks used to be funny about this, because he'd try and hold up the appropriate number of fingers, but he couldn't quite do it, so we got a kind of waggle.
But there are times when we need to hold ourselves back. I remember calling, 'Hey, look at the squirrel hopping along the fence!' when the Blue-eyed Boy was lost in a game. Mistake. He didn't need to be torn out of his world right at that moment, and squirrels would surely hop for him another time.
