Seeing Fish

My 1 year old son L has been going to daycare for a while now. The one we go to has a fish tank near the classes with the smaller kids. I have walked by that fish tank hundreds of times, especially when my other two kids were going to the same daycare. For some reason, L finally took an interest in it late one day.

As I was picking L up from daycare, he was looking at the fish tank while pointing at it. He said he wanted to see the fish so I had two options. The first option was to still head home. It was the easy option. It was the option that most people would take without fault since it is usually a long day at work (or whenever they are coming from) and the goal is to make it back home quickly for dinner. The second option was to stop and make the most of it. I picked the second option that day.

I held L up to the fish tank so he could see more easily and we had a while conversation about it. We counted the types of clownfish. We talked about how some of the fish were hiding. We pointed at the fish that were darting around and energetic. He kept asking what things were and I tried my best to explain it. He had so much curiosity and joy from looking at the fish tank.

It all lasted probably five minutes or less. Also, L has not stopped by the fish tank as intently or when he wanted to look, he didn’t have as many questions. It was then that I’m reminded of these moments where it passes by so quickly and you can’t necessarily recreate them again. It’s easy to rush off and do the next thing as a parent. There is always so much to do. Time to time though, it’s better to slow down and see the fish.