Apart from being incredibly cute, toddlers are also known for their ability to promote their personal interests with a degree of persuasiveness quite out of proportion to their size.  They are wonderful little beings, and living with one certainly provides much entertainment and moments of absolute joy and abandonment as well as moments of absolute mental and emotional breakdown (for all parties involved).  

I am also finding that life with my toddler is teaching me things.  Here is my list of 6 lessons on time from my toddler.

1. Did you think your time belongs to you?  No, it does not.
   Life with a toddler will teach you this lesson pretty quickly.  Like I said to my 'yet to have children' sister the other day, "You know all those times in your life when you sit down and just wait for the next thing, well when you are a mother you don't have those any more".  I mean those moments where your time literally belongs to you, so you paint your nails, read a book, practice how to curl your hair with your GHD... gone.  

2. There is no time like the present.
   You will learn this lesson when you mistakenly reference something that you intend doing with your toddler in the distant future.  For example, "We can play with your new toys in the bath this evening".  Why wait until this evening?  Your toddler will already be running down the passage towards the bathroom to throw said toys into a dry bath tub and scream at you until you run the water.  Carpe Diem.

3. You can fit more things into one day than you think you can.
   Toddlers don't often sleep past 6am, they go to bed at about 7pm and nap for about two hours a day.  That leaves eleven hours to do things.  Toddlers are eagerly exploring the world around them one thing at a time, and each thing is granted about five minutes of their time before they move onto the next thing. Remember point number one - when you don't have the possibility of 'filler moments' in your day, you can fit in a lot of things!  You will know what I mean if you have ever arrived home from a Saturday morning outing to the beach and realised that it is only 8:30am.  You can fit more things into one day than you ever thought you could.

4. Taking some time to breath in and breath out before you react is worth it.
   When spending vast amounts of time with a toddler, you may find yourself in the position where you want to scream and shout like... well like a toddler.  However, spending time with a toddler is granting you the valuable opportunity to do some self-examination when it comes to the way you react to heated situations.  The best way, I have found, to combat my instincts to react like the coiled spring that I often feel like, is to take a few moments to think about what I am doing so that my response to my child is not reactive.  It's not always easy but it is always worth it to take the time to breath in and breath out.

5. Spending time together is important.
   You may have heard this one, 'Children spell LOVE, T - I - M - E'.  It is true.  Nothing brings more joy to my toddler than myself and his dad putting aside all those 'important' things we feel we should be spending our time on in order to spend time with him.  At only a year and a half, he has already figured out what is most important in life, being with those we love.

6. Time goes quickly.
   If there is one recurrent theme that I hear from the mouths of parents young and old, it is 'the time passes so quickly'.  There is nothing like the rapid changes and growth in a young child to remind you that time passes in the blink of an eye.  As the parent of a very young child, you may find yourself wishing away the hours until your husband will arrive home to help you, or it's 8pm and you can put your head down on a pillow and go to sleep.  You have probably heard the saying, 'the days are long, but the years are short'.  I find this an valuable truth to hold on to.  When I watch my little boy eagerly bring me the same book to read to him yet again, knowing that there are chores waiting, I remind myself of this lesson.