Helen's blog: Being curious

‘Mummy, what does Brexit mean?’  No doubt I am not the only parent to be asked this question by their child in recent weeks. Our 4 year old daughter loves listening to the news, mainly because she is insatiably curious.  Few conversations are private in our house thanks to her razor-sharp hearing and unrepentant eavesdropping on any conversation within radar.

I admit I sometimes find her constant questions exhausting, particularly first thing in the morning when my brain is not yet fully engaged.  Trying to answer questions such as ‘What is ForEx?’, ‘Why are people fighting in Syria?’ and ‘Why is no-one from our family Prime Minister?’ before I’ve had my Weetabix is a parenting challenge no-one warned me about before starting a family.  And giving a half-baked answer is futile, resulting only in more insistent, Jeremy Paxman-style questioning until I’m deemed to have supplied a full and satisfactory explanation.  My husband, whose superior general knowledge makes him much better placed to give expert answers but only after 9am, sensibly grinds coffee beans at top volume whilst pretending not to hear. 

However, I’ve begun to appreciate that our daughter’s curiosity is inspiring in many ways. It’s all too easy as an adult to fall into regular, comfortable routines that are founded on established friendships and familiar journeys, and as a parent I can blame a never-ending ‘to do’ list as my excuse for failing to make time for inventiveness.   But I don’t want to look back in 20 or 30 years’ time and realise I stopped learning when I hit middle age and parenthood.  So, I’ve resolved to follow our daughter’s example and encourage my curiosity to flourish.  I can’t ditch my responsibilities to go travelling round the world for a year, so I’m planning some horizon-expanding closer to home, including

• Having some ‘mini adventures’ as a family, from camping overnight in our garden (a first for our daughter, and well outside my husband’s comfort zone) to dusting down an old telescope for a night of stargazing with friends round a campfire.
• Saying ‘yes’ to things I would normally say ‘no’ to.  Alarmingly, this has resulted in signing up for my first half-marathon in September.  I’m clinging onto the fact that the route goes right past Morelli’s ice-cream parlour in Broadstairs.

• Making time for play. Let’s face it, I never get to the bottom of my ‘to do’ list anyway. I confess I sometimes sigh guiltily when our daughter suggests a made-up game with nonsensical rules that might excite other 4 year olds but not this 44 year old. But it’s worth joining in simply to see her face shining because ‘Mummy’s playing too’.  And 9 times out of 10, that play time together ends up being the highlight of our day.

I’ll let you know how these resolutions work out in a future post. In the meantime, I’m off to read up on current affairs ready for tomorrow’s breakfast grilling….

Helen Beedham is Head of Corporate Affairs at WorkLife Central and a member of the Citymothers and Cityfathers Network Committee. She previously worked in management consulting in London for 15 years.  She is married with two step-children aged 19 and 21 and a daughter aged 4 and lives in rural Kent.  -