I've finally taken notice. This is something my parents felt for years, and now I'm feeling myself. My kids think I'm stupid. At 12, 10 & 6, they know it all and I know nothing. The 12 year old is actually the best when it comes to accepting something that I say as the truth, but at 10 & 6 the younger two look at me when I explain something and know that I'm wrong and they're right. I know I'm not alone in this. Marcy has expressed feeling the same way. TJ brought it up in a post on his site yesterday. My parents used to tell me in bouts of frustration, "Fine, you do want you want...you know it all anyway". I think I may have an idea why.
When children are born, grown adults, some who have college education and beyond, become bumbling idiots. We talk to these babies, and we say things like "Wouljoo look at the baby" or , "is you de baby", or even better, "dijoo do da poopoo". Then there's my personal favorite, "da do de ba ba bee be". Their first impression of us is that we are morons, incapable of normal speech.
A little bit later in their life we started testing their reasoning and thinking skills by making false statements to see what they say. They may tell us that the grass is green, to which we may reply that it is not green, but purple, just to see what they will say. Or we'll tell them things like, don't make faces, your face could freeze that way, or that if they play with their belly buttons that it might come untied.
As they get a little older, they find out about things like the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and someone else who I won't mention here. The reasoning skills that we've given them turn against us, and they know that we've been telling all these lies throughout the years, and yet, they are just supposed to believe us now? Would you believe someone who consistently lied to you?
Don't get me wrong, I still think that the greater good here is letting their imaginations develop through all of the before mentioned parenting tools. Have you ever met a child whose parents were always honest about everything with them? They have no imagination and usually no sense of humor. So where is the happy medium here? How do we teach our children to think independently, without making ourselves out to look like raving lunatics in their eyes? Is this to deep of a subject for a Tuesday? Can I ask anymore questions?
My Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 17 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes and 29 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 173
Lifetime Saved: 1 day, 7 hours
Money Saved: $31.77
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