Toddlers are so pure. She doesn’t understand that we help her with certain things because she’s little. She thinks that everyone just helps each other like that. So she tries to blow on my food and cut it up for me and tries to help me put on my shoes.
i was giving little wagon rides to a baby around the backyard one day and all of a sudden she hops off and slaps the seat of the wagon telling me to get on because it was my turn and i was like no it’s ok im too heavy and she was like NO ITS UR TURN and kept tugging on my hand so i would sit down. eventually i got on and it was just a little 2 year old trying so hard to push me around on a wagon not understanding why it wouldn’t budge but still so determined to let me have my turn lol
I don’t think I’d realised how many casual compliments we pay to our toddler until she started casually complimenting us back, because experience has taught her that’s How Social Interaction Is Done, and there’s nothing quite like a very earnest three-year-old solemnly and sincerely informing you that you look wonderful and smell nice to make you feel really good about yourself
I tell her she’s my best girl. She tells me I’m her best auntie. Then we both feel good about the world!
Teach them kindness.
my little cousin is 3 and she stands there and goes “you’re doing it!” whenever i’m like, making food for us, or doing the laundry, or pushing her in a stroller up a hill. she is the most encouraging sweetheart.
“What is it that the child has to teach? The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everybody should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness. The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not. And the child is right.” - Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
Children are so wise—children are our greatest teachers. They are our future.
Humans come out kind.
It takes a lot of violence to force humans to be cruel. And as soon as that violence stops, it’s surprising how quickly the kindness returns. Bc it is the default.
But we must remember that children are wise yes but they should not be looked to as leaders, that is our job. They should not be burdened with the sage’s role. Their job, their role, is to play. That’s it. To play and to learn. That they are wise is only because all ages of person have a type of wisdom to contribute to the greater whole of their community, their neighbourhood, and we should respect that all voices have worth. They are not better than us, just as they are not worse.
Children are people.
