“Follow the child”.
I love this concept, and it forms the core of how we choose to parent. We try hard to follow Frida’s interests, providing her with opportunities to explore and play and learn which are guided by her likes and desires.
Enter Mog. Frida is obsessed with the Mog books by Judith Kerr. Since she started to speak, all cats have been “muh” and the object of much delight and fascination. My husband and I have read the books to her over and over again, and she never tires of them.
Last week I took Frida to a Bach to Baby concert (which was brilliant) which went brilliantly until Frida spotted a little girl with a Mog soft toy. Although the little girl kindly let Frida have a look at it, she was so sad to have to give it back and seemed really distressed to have to leave the “muh” behind.
I am not an enormous fan of soft toys. Frida already has a lot of them – in fact, she already has a lot of toys full stop. But I decided that if I was really going to be child led then maybe I should listen to the fact she would get a lot of joy from having her very own Mog.
I took to the internet to look for one, where I was horrified to see them being sold for £75! Eek! Happily my wonderful friend Cara came to the rescue, sending us one, and Mog had hardly left Frida’s side since she arrived.
As you can see she’s pretty happy about it.
