Will He Love Rain?

It’s only fitting that the water baby and his mamma were cuddling by the sea when the first shower of the season fell. He cocked his head to one side when the rain fell, questioning. My face broke into a big grin and I pulled him closer. I asked him if he thought it felt as wonderful to him as it did to me. From the look on his face, it did.

Its fitting because his mamma – yours truly – gets excited when the rains come down for the first time every year.

Every year when the sun goes and the clouds come out, I feel a certain thrill and welcome the rains with open arms. And this time, I’m seeing it for the first time through curious little eyes.

I guess you can say that I prepped this tiny little person, my 8-month-old son for this moment since his birth. You see, I have high needs, intense baby. From the very beginning I learnt that water and the outdoors calm him down. He needed breeze in his face or water to calm down when he was fussy as a newborn and I was never hesitant to use it.

I know there are a few things that all babies come with as each one of us are individuals, but there are a lot of things that we can teach and cultivate too as parents.

A lot of people, my husband included, has a sort of aversion to things to do with the outdoors and nature. For example, he has a phobia of dogs though he has never touched one, nor has any dog bitten him or harmed him. He was probably told through his childhood, don’t go near that dog, it will bite.

A lot of people do not like getting dirty in the mud, or wet in the rain. I suspect a lot of it has to do with upbringing where parents sanitized a lot of things and kept children from playing in the muck.

I do not believe in over sanitization. I banished the sanitizer from my room very soon after my baby was born. By getting a healthy dose of germs my baby builds up his immunity and so far hasn’t had a sniffle since birth. I’ve let him lie on the grass, and the mud since he was 3 months old and I’ve exposed him to nature as much I can in this urban jungle.

I just know he is going to grow up to be the kind of guy who loves a lot of things to do with the outdoors, take pleasure in swimming, hiking and living things, love playing outdoors instead of being stuck indoors with video games, because from the very beginning I’ve tried to get him excited about these elements. I see him and I taking off for hikes and diving holidays someday.

As a child growing up, I loved the sun, played sports, loved the water, and spent entire summer holidays getting browner by the second and wasting away. Today when I see the impact TV, classes, homework, and video games have on children’s’ lives; I really want to make sure I raise the kind of child who prefers good old-fashioned play.

So tell me mommies, does it work? Does teaching babies things and exposing them to different things very early on create an impact on the kind of person he/she may shape up to be? I’d love to know in the comments.

Aloka Gambhir is a new mom (since October 2012). She is a fitness and nutrition enthusiast and a health and fitness blogger since 2011. She is a Mumbai mom following an alternative lifestyle called the paleo / primal or evolutionary lifestyle. She is passionate about helping fellow moms follow their instincts to a healthier lifestyle for themselves and their family by questioning the rules and conventional wisdom on her blog: www.wholesomemamma.in