It’s my son’s first Christmas and he’ll just be touching on 10 months when Santa arrives.
Of course, he’ll have gifts to open and a fun family day to enjoy. But the things I really hope for him are things I (probably) can’t wrap.
I want to give him the courage to be himself.
Even if he fears what those around him may think, I hope my son will always have the courage to be himself, to follow his beliefs and never to pretend to be something or someone he is not.
I can’t give him that courage, but I can raise him to know that we’ll accept and love whatever and whoever he becomes unconditionally.
I want to give him a lifelong love of books.
The early the signs are there. He loves to sit with his books, look at the pictures and turn the pages. I wish I could gift him a love of book that will take through his lifetime.
I want to give him a desire to learn.
I want to give him the unwavering need to learn new things each day and for that to continue long beyond his school years.
I want to give him a safe place to grow up and grow old.
It’s a cliché, I know. But I wish he could grow up with more peace. With growing fear of terrorist attacks and intolerance for the beliefs of others that exists the world over, I often wish I could change it for him.
I want to give him the ability to learn from his mistakes.
We all screw up from time to time. Welcome to humanity. I hope he will have the ability to learn from his mistakes.
I want to give him the right balance between confidence and modesty.
I want him to know what he is good at, know his strengths and be confident in himself. But at the same time, I hope he can recognise his weaknesses and me humble and modest.
I want to give him a lifelong sense of adventure.
An adventure for him today is crawling (at lightning speed) from the living room to the kitchen in the hunt for something he shouldn’t have! He’s a intrepid little explorer.
I hope that’s a sense of adventure he keeps long into his life – I hope he travels and experiences as much of the world as he can.
I want to give him a hard working nature.
I’m from a family of people who work hard. My Nan raised 4 children as a single Mother. My Mother raised my Brother and I and put us through private school on a warehouse job and second jobs wherever she could get them.
My entire family works hard for a living in whatever their profession may be and I hope that’s something my son inherits.
I can’t wrap that stuff.
And anything I can even contribute to will take many years.
But I’m sure he’ll enjoy his toys from Santa while we work on the rest of this.