In this video, I share the #1 thing I would tell any Montessori toddler parent or toddler teacher to practice if you want a more peaceful relationship with your child: humility. And I don’t mean “thinking poorly of yourself.” I mean having a modest estimation of your own importance, role, and rank in the relationship—so you can show up with confidence without slipping into pride. Montessori writes about this undercurrent often (sometimes indirectly), and it’s a major piece of forming the Montessori adult. When I embrace humility, my feelings don’t get hurt when a lesson flops, when my toddler has a bad attitude, or when they don’t like what I offered. Instead of making it about me, I can observe, learn, adjust, and respond appropriately (and yes, sometimes that includes a natural consequence). Humility is also what allows me to truly live out “trust in the child” and “follow the child,” because toddlers have the absorbent mind—those learning “superpowers” we don’t have past age six. Ironically, humility makes me a more confident parent and teacher. It takes pressure off: I can do my best, control what I can, and remember the child is a separate person with free will. As Dr. Montessori said, “the child is the maker of man”—and I’m not responsible for every single thing my child does.