Toddler Talk: Setting the Standard

Have you ever taken your kiddos on a date? It is a fun thing that we try and make a point of doing often. Steven started taking Rhi on Daddy dates when she was about 18 months. As Talon is quickly approaching that age, this month in fact, Valentine's Day seemed to be the perfect time to take him on his first Mommy and Me date.

So this Saturday (because I am not willing to give up my man on Valentines day) we parted ways and took our kids on Valentines dates.

We started off by giving them their little Valentines. After gifts were given, Rhi and Steven headed to the Santa Ana Zoo. They had a blast and Rhi talked about it all evening. After the zoo, they went for ice cream cones. In order to devote all of his attention to Rhi, Steven ditched his dSLR and used his iPhone to catch a couple images for memory sake.

What a sweet date they had.

Talon and I grabbed my pass for a fun trip to Disneyland. We hit up Small World after battling a massive crowd.

 From there it was Talon's all time favorite Winnie the Pooh or as he says "Wi-e-apoooooo".

  

We cut the trip short in order to go have dessert at Rainforest Cafe. He enjoyed lots of sweets while I devoured the time I had alone with my sweet boy.

In that moment, as we shared in memories and fun with our precious babies, we were also teaching them valuable lessons. Lessons of how they should be treated when the dating days come. How they should treat the people they chose to date. From the time we found out we were having a little girl, these dates were something we knew we had to do. We live in a time where courting and treating a girl right are not common. We knew that Steven would be taking her out, showing her what she deserved and setting a standard for her. That any boy who didn't treat her this way was not worth her time. We decided to start at a young age because...well, it's when kids learn the most. How my husband treats me and how he treats her during date time, is what she will likely base her dating and eventually marriage off of. We wanted to make sure that was shown to her properly.

Now that we have Talon, I want more and more to teach him how he should be treating a woman. AND how she should be treating him back. I think, so often, we forget to protect our boys. Not that we forget but it is not as important to us as protecting our girls. Why is that? They are just as precious. Yes, they are the "stronger" gender. They are the ones who are expected to protect but they too need protecting. They need to be treated with respect.

I encourage all of you to take your kids out on dates. Teach them to show love and respect. Show them how they should be treated and just importantly how they should be treating others. It is never to early...and it's never too late. They are sponges and you need the training too. If you start now, you are more likely to do it later.