#more-berry

[dinosaur-ears]

"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar."

-Bradley Miller

[dinosaur-ears]

Feels crazy how normal it is to start a conversation with younger acquaintances who are students by asking about their grades when I would never make small talk with a working adult by asking about their performance appraisal

[dinosaur-ears]

Once, when I was about 4, my mom tried to motivate me to clean up my room by telling me that there were kids who weren't lucky enough to have so many toys, and that she was going to take my toys and donate them to those kids if I didn't clean them up.

I digested this information over the course of the whole day, and finally said, "Mommy, I want you to give my toys to those kids who don't have toys."

In her exhaustion and exasperation, my mom was livid. All she wanted was a clean floor, but instead, her kid accepted the threat that she'd never intended to follow through on.

I didn't learn anything about cleaning my room that day. Instead, I learned that grown-ups are very confusing.