What do I need to do when people respond to arguments of "you, as an adult, should be capable of making this specific choice for yourself, and can be expected to take responsibility of the consequences" with shit like "but what about my sister's kids, if we let my toddler nieces loose in these circumstances unsupervised, they would get seriously hurt". Like I get that some of you were taught to just skip the words you don't understand and assume that they aren't important to understanding the whole sentence, but how do you not know what the word "adult" means??
When I was small, about six or seven, I was balancing on a curb while waiting with my mother. I don't remember what we were waiting for. There was a toddler nearby, their parent otherwise occupied but within earshot. While I was doing my balance beam thing, my mother noticed I had the toddlar's rapt attention and said to me "Careful, you have an audience."
I noticed the toddlar, knew toddlars tend to copy others without understanding and don't have great balance, and promptly sat my butt on the curb as I realized I was Setting A Bad Example, and did not know I was doing it cause I didn't realize A Kid Was Watching.
If you are outside your home? Assume a toddlar somewhere can see you, and consider what they'd learn and then attempt from the watching. Would it be dangerous to them? You cannot assume supervision, toddlars people watch out windows all the time, and if you choose to act in a way that they copy dangerously? You just Made Labor for that kid and their entire family group to Unteach that before its an ER visit, and Kids Don't Roll With Un-Teaching. The harder a parent demands the kid stops without explaining why, the harder the kid will cling to that behavior or a permutation of it whenever they feel trapped, spiteful, or upset.
If you don't consider that there may always be a set of extremely young eyes on you, you will make life harder for all of your peers who have to deal with that kid. Consider them if and when you find yourself upset and feeling entitled to a public behavior when giving it up does you no harm, and may do others incredible good.
Part of Being The Change you want in the world is living it, even when no one is watching.
That is a beautiful sentiment. What does it have to do with anything in this poist?
