An auditory vision

Morgan came out with, what I think, to be a very fascinating statement/story today. She was trying to tell me about something that happened to her a few days ago. She said she was doing something and my voice and her voice were in her head. She said that she knew it was in her head because she saw me sitting in the chair and I was not talking. She said "it was like a vision." I asked her when she first noticed this and she said "the other day when I was watching Cheetah Girls."

This whole conversation stunned me. I don't think that I have ever really wondered when someone first realizes or hears their own voice in their head. That has to symbolize some sort of change in consciousness?. I now wonder if there was any internal dialogue before and she was just unaware of it or if there was none at all. When she told me of her experience, she seemed to think it was interesting and new. Is this something that coincides with the concept of "I" or "me" that is separate from another? As I have written in a recent post, Morgan's empathy seems to also be developing around the same time as this new phenomena. It seems to me that empathy and the experience/awareness of the "self" would begin to develop around the same time.

These ideas excite me and remind me to be careful about what I expect from my children. I am also reminded of how completely different their internal world is than my own. It is so easy to forget these facts and fall into that mode of expecting way too much from them. I absolutely believe that children are doing the best they can at any given moment. A toddler that grabs a toy from another is doing what everything in his being is telling him to do. "Sharing" is not something that makes any sense at that stage. You can say, "you have to learn to share," a zillion times and it won't make any difference until he is actually capable of sharing. Keeping in mind that empathy and a sense of self are essential in having the ability to share, the ability comes much later than some may think. Remembering that they are working with a different set of tools and are using them in the best way they know how definitely helps me to be more compassionate, empathetic, and better mom.