One can never imagine how big and complicated the internal world of a three-year-old child is.

Yesterday afternoon I went to pick up Nicole from her daycare center. These days I have tried to be there a little bit earlier than before because of the jet lag after a long flight in this new year season. Her teacher, Sandra, asked her help with the tidying up first. Then Nicole went for toilet and hands washing. After all these being done, Sandra took her to me hand by hand, and we had a short talk about her daily routines. Then we waved bye-bye to Sandra and other teachers, and to her small friends. On the way back home, she looked joyful in the beginning, telling me about the daytime activities she took part in, while later when the peace and quietness came back to her, she looked tired.

After we getting off the bus, there was still another 15 mins of climbing up along a hill to our apartment. The time when she stepped off the bus, she asked me where her daddy was. I told her that daddy was still working, and would only be back around six or seven o’clock. She accepted the fact, and sighed with ‘Okay…’, somewhat depressively.

On the way back, she was not as cooperative as like usual. Sometimes she refused to walk, but to stand in the middle of the road, for quite a while, no matter how many times I asked her to move forward. Sometimes she stepped aside to the grassland where was covered by thick snow, and she tried to kick off the snow until the bare grasses were visible. And she kept silent all the way. I knew that she was tired and for some reason unhappy, thus I tried my best to be patient and to motivate her by playing the game of ‘Hare and the Tortoise’. Slowly and slowly, we were reaching our destination. Finally we arrived. But she bursted into tears and started to threw tantrums all of a sudden outside the door. I opened the door and asked her to come inside but she refused. I was upset, but still tried to persuade her, ‘See, Nicole, we are home now. Why crying like that? Come in and we can have a rest. Would you like milk or juice? Or you can play with your toys.’ But she shouted back with ‘Nein! Nein! Nein!’ Then I told her, ‘Ok. If you don’t want to come with me, I will go myself.’ Then I walked in and pretended to close the door. She realized that I was seriously going to do it and rushed inside, crying loudly. I was thinking about I need to do something to comfort her, because she was so sad and tired. So I lowered down to her and hold her with my arms, asked her, ‘why are you crying so sadly? Tired? We are home now. Want a cuddle?’ The last sentence triggered an even louder cry and appeal, ’Mummy can’t carry me! Mummy backache! Daddy carry me! Daddy…!’

My tears came out suddenly when I heard the words. Such a sweet and considerate girl she is. One month ago I had a bad movement when carrying her up and twisted my waist when we were going to school. I remember that I couldn’t move at all when the accident happened and this definitely scared her. After that I suffered from long-term lower back pain till now and couldn’t carry her although I’m getting better. It is clear that she knows everything. I was deeply touched. I am proud also, for I think that to possess a rich and beautiful internal world is to have a most powerful resource for dealing with life.

No wonder why she asked me where her daddy was. No wonder why she kept silent all the way long but finally lost control when arriving at home. Dear parents, do you still think that our children know nothing or few about our world?

google image, inner world