Learning from the womb and beyond, along comes hunger, teeth, viruses, crawling, walking and all sorts of great things to discover. That bunny bowl going to the high chair better be full and full with the right stuff or it might get frisbee'd across the room. Or will it?
Things like playing in the toilet, heaters, pools, ovens and hot plates, cars in driveways, squishing cuddly kittens; all have an action and consequence.
I have a sister with her own kids that are now adults. She feels sorry for the kids that go first through the hoops of growing up. They are the pioneers, at least in their own home. They are the older brother or sister that tested the limits with their parents, that let their siblings know if trouble would be the reward for this or that action.
So, perhaps spare a thought for the eldest as they try to make their own sense out of this world. Any other kids that follow still have to do the same but perhaps with a bit of knowledge learned without risk.
As parents, we are also boundary riders. As our kids venture forth into the world, we can have a really tough time trying to keep them safe, decent and out of jail. Some of my most difficult decisions in life have arisen simply from being a Dad trying to do what I think is the best thing, the right thing.
Single parents and/or one child families have their own mountains to climb as well. Doing it solo has to be, generally, the toughest way to go. Riding and testing the boundaries, an interesting but often lonely and confusing process.
Boundary riders; difficult job on both sides of the fence.