What Adults Can Learn from Children

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Have you ever considered, as an adult, that you can learn from someone, not on the same physical, emotional, mental, and intellectual level as you are? What if there are essential life lessons you can pick up from a literal child?

Age is not a reason for us to be arrogant toward each other. We are here to learn from one another, so children should not be left out of the equation. There are things we can pick up from them, starting from how they act, and respond to their emotional and intellectual capacity. Children are also life’s most excellent teachers, especially in simplicity and making the most out of every day.

The problem with adults looking down on children is that they assume they know nothing. Grownups think the child’s youthful stature needs to make them learn more about the world’s workings. But we also need to give these children more credit as to how sharp they genuinely are. Their keen observant eyes bore into everything they see, so they must grow in a loving, nurturing environment to become a healthy adult.

A good way for parents to start is by exposing them to media that teaches suitable moral lessons to children, specifically Ruthanne’s books for children. Ruth Nopson’s book ‘A Collection of Children’s Short Stories features different characters and storylines that each reveal what young readers must learn and carry with them for the rest of their lives.

The Penchant for Curiosity

Try to remember the times when you were a child. You used to do things that didn’t make sense to most adults around you, so they tried to call you out and stop you from acting on your childlike impulses, such as playing in the dirt, making mud pies, and running in the rain. Those times were born from the inner curiosity of a child wondering what it would be like to do all those things.

Time is not a concern for any curious child. They hardly feel the length it takes to dig out dirt and hopefully find a treasure beneath. Sometimes, they do surprising things that worry us, parents. But what we want to take from this is how children unleash their urges to discover the things that baffle them, the things they wouldn’t know about had they not acted on them.

The Lessons from Failure

It’s expected as parents to shield our children from making mistakes. We become closed off from any possibility of exposing them to harm and use any means not to repeat history. But instead of letting them learn independently, it stunts their growth potential. While it’s true that parents should be the ones teaching experience and learning as the children age, just letting them be and making them realize every step of the way is a perfect method of keeping them on the right track.

Real-life lessons will soon hit your child’s life without seeing them coming. We can’t always protect them from everything, no matter how much we try to cherish their fragility and naivety. But those lessons can only be learned by your child when they experience them firsthand. That is something we parents should realize too.

Rediscovering simple joys in life

Growing up took a toll on our mental and emotional health. Yes, we might have more capacity and permission to do things children usually couldn’t. But looking at our children now, we often miss the carefree and joyous moments when the world wasn’t so harsh on pressuring us to keep up. That is why it’s crucial to let your child live a happy life and not worry about anything.

Children can even teach us how to rediscover and ultimately heal our wounded inner child through their interactions with peers. They also show us how to slow down and take a moment to enjoy our surroundings. Their innocent capacity to look at the world with wonder must be an example for us parents to become kinder to ourselves, incredibly when we get frustrated with our lives.

There’s nothing that binds children to exercise their creative freedom and compelling curiosity – even if it’s playing with dirt and itchy plants. The planet Earth contains a limitless pot of stories for children to write their lives from, and hopefully, parents get to experience what it’s like to be in their shoes; without downplaying their children’s maturity, wisdom, emotional intelligence, and wondrous curiosity.