“Mom, can I see your phone?”
Ugh…it’s starting already. At the age of 4, Alistair is already requesting my phone. He’s no stranger to technology, we’re not no screentime kind of parents. We’re realistic, but this gets me. We’re in Stuttgart, Germany, starting our walk through the closest thing we have to sacred grounds: the Mercedes Museum. We’ve been building this up to Alistair since before we left home, and I figure even with the hype there’s a 15% chance he’ll love it. But to be bored, already?
There are pictures of most of the vehicles in the Benz Museum (which is saying something). Photo: Alistair
“Why? What do you need?”
“I want to take some pictures.”
And I remember: in the frenzy of packing up 2 wee ones for a trip to the other side of the globe, less than 24 hours ago, Alistair had asked to bring his camera. I told him no, and felt guilty about it – it’s rare that he wants to flex an artistic muscle, and here I was shooting it down. I promised him that if he wanted to take pictures on the trip he could use my phone. I figured he’d forget about it and I wouldn’t actually have to hand over my phone to a sticky-fingered preschooler.
In the garden of Hotel Alte Kelter. Photo: Alistair.
But he didn’t forget (he never does, I should know this by now). I handed him by phone over and over, whenever he asked. We have hundreds (!) of photos from our 2 weeks in Germany and Croatia taken from the vantage point of 40 inches off the ground. Handing over my phone, repeatedly, was scary, but I love the result. I have the closest thing I can possibly have to what it looked like through Alistair’s eyes. What did he think was important? What caught his attention most? In most cases, it’s different than what stood out to me, and I love that. I love the moments he captured, whether it’s a photo of my dad and I strolling through the Mercedes Museum, or a photo of Jordan mid-blink at dinner…this is what Alistair sees, and I love having a glimpse into his world.
At the Benz Museum – Jurgen and I checking out the World Cup team bus. Photo: Alistair.
My main parenting goal for 2018 was to do a better job of seeing the world through my kids’ eyes, and by doing so hopefully having more patience and understanding with day to day meltdowns and temper tantrums. As an adult it’s easy to get frustrated when a kid inexplicably loses it over nothing. But is it ever really nothing? Not to them. There’s lots of talk about taking a “40,000 foot view” of life, but I think we can learn more from a 40 inch view.
Here are some of Ali’s snaps for our time in Europe in September:
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