Kids are more perceptive than we like to admit to ourselves

[LeftyMom]

My son is sitting on the floor, reading and eating his breakfast. He looked up from his book just now, pointed to an illustration of a zoo and said "there are lots and lots of jails with animals in them." Adults see an animal behind bars and imagine a justification for why it's there, sometimes even put that rationalization into action. Kids see through the bullshit, until we teach them to believe the best about other humans even if it means distrusting thier own eyes. I sometimes wonder how much better the world would be if all those unintended adult lessons in lying to ourselves never sank in.

[billyskank]

1. Kids aren't dumb

it's generally adult conceit to assume they don't know anything.

:hi:

[LeftyMom]

2. Very true.

He's reading the star-bellied sneetches now. It's neat watching him grow up and lean new skills all the time.

[billyskank]

3. The sneetches!

Man did those morans get fleeced! :rofl:

[meow2u3]

8. I'm more inclined to believe a little kid than an adult

Kids may fib about trivial things, but as far as the big things are concerned, the little ones tell the truth. They're too young to make up a story about out-of-the-ordinary events.

[LeftyMom]

15. True

They'll lie, but they don't convince themselves of thier lies or lie convincingly until they're older. Mine lies about the craziest things sometimes, I'll ask him who left thier poopy underpants on the bathroom floor (I try not to ask questions like this that are invitations to lie, and instead to ask something like "why didn't you put these in the basket?" but it's habit) and he'll tell me my sister did it.

[pitohui]

19. that's just calling them stupid

i was never too young to make up a story out of the ordinary events and i would have been hurt that you didn't respect my raises in that fashion

kids are smarter than you believe, and the ability to create is an important crucial part of that intelligence

[idgiehkt]

4. I believe this too

it is compartmentalization. It always makes me sad when people say 'that's the way it is' because you know that there was a time when they didn't believe it. I was watching one of those home video shows the other day and a family had found a spider in the bathroom and the Dad asked "what should we do, kill it?" and the toddler just looked up at him and started crying. It was really stunning, this hairless, diapered little creature knew the definition of 'kill' and had respect for an insect's life force, and was emotionally hurt at the thought of someone taking it's life. The video is really stunning because it's unmistakeable what went on, there was an older child there too who verbalized not to kill the bug so they took it outside and let it go and the kids just waved at it and one said "see you tomorrow!". I think that is the real reason that people revile animal rights activists so very much, because of this compartmentalization and the fear that activists bring up in people that they will have to relive those early childhood emotions when they first learned how cruel the world is to other species, before they closed themselves off to them.

[XemaSab]

5. My friend was telling me

about an argument on a butterfly listserv... One of the guys on the listserv collects and dissects the butterflies, and all the other folks were up in arms about it until he asked "do you swat mosquitoes?"

It's hard to morally justify a huge slice of life.

[idgiehkt]

6. "It's hard to morally justify a huge slice of life."

I'm not following...

[XemaSab]

7. If we think about ending a life when we swat mosquitos

it's hard to do it.

But I swat 'em anyways. :D

[SixStrings]

10. That's from 'America's funniest home videos'. Probably the

cutest thing I'v ever seen on TV. The little girl was crying about the 'pider' - 'please daddy don't kill the 'pider'.

Damn cute.

[LynzM]

9. I agree....

My daughter said to me yesterday, "Mom, the whole earth is our family." :loveya:

[Ellen Forradalom]

11. And they are magnificently compassionate

unless that capacity is beaten out of them, figuratively or literally.

I am always amazed by my son's capacity to love his deeply flawed parents.

[LeftyMom]

14. Definitely

It's interesting how kids go through a phase when they're a bit older than LK is where they're really obsessed with fairness. Eventually they outgrow it, I suppose because they get sick of being hurt by all the things in the world and in thier lives that really aren't fair. It's really too bad, the defense mechanism that allows people to overlook Mom giving them a smaller slice of cake also allows them to overlook thier boss underpaying a coworker or the inequities of the tax system. I think a little more of that childlike insistence on fairness would not be such a bad thing.

[LaraMN]

12. Perceptive AND blunt.

And most certainly insightful, in their observations. That can be richly eye-opening, or...embarrassing, such as when your four-year-old notes the woman in line ahead of you at the grocery store has a "really big butt." There's no tactful way to head off a pronouncement like that.:banghead:

[LeftyMom]

13. He does that.

"Auntie Sarah has really big bubbles!"

He's practicing letters right now. He's been able to spell things out and type messages for some time, but today was the first day he's drawn letters that were recognizable. He wrote his first name a few times and then went back to scribbling.

[LaraMN]

16. Awesome!

It's amazing how fast their skills compound, once they start reading and writing, even a little bit. Pretty soon you'll be finding "secret plans," and somewhat anatomically correct pictures of people, around the house! Never a dull moment, eh?

[LeftyMom]

17. He's been reading since last November (I posted the story a while back)

and he's typed up messages to email to his Dad and to friends of mine with only a little spelling help, but up until now he's showed interest in writing but quickly got frustrated while trying to actually form letters.

[bumblebee1]

18. It reminds me of what my then 4 yr old grandnephew said to his mother.

One day, his mother (my niece) was sitting on the toilet. Said grandnephew comes into the bathroom and says to his mother, "Your butt it too big for the toilet." After that, my niece went on the Weight Watchers and lost the weight. She looks great even after having her second baby last July.