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Why is it that grown-ups, having been children before, sometimes have difficulty understanding the behaviour of a child?
Don’t they remember what it was like to be a child? Instead, they expect the child to understand them, and think and behave like adults, forgetting that the child has never been an adult before.
Have they forgotten the curiosity of a child, and how that can be a major distraction at times?
Why do they ask questions of children that they simply cannot answer?
I remember when I was about 10 years old, I was caught by my elder sister (she must have been about 17) with my hand in the fish tank. I had gone to look at the fish in the tank, and a fish swam up to the surface so I put my hand in the water and sort of cupped the fish in my palm.
I got hauled up and made to stand in front of her while she sat on the couch.
“Why did you play with the fish?” she asked.
I looked down, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, trying to put on my saddest “puppy dog eyes” look.
“Answer me!” she shot at me.
And there I was thinking “What should I say? Oh my God, what punishment am I going to get?”
“Well?” she asked. “Why did you play with the fish?”
Today I look back, and I ask myself “Exactly what answer did she want? How could I explain that the fish tank was there, the fish were in it, and I stuck my hand in the tank? I have no idea why – I just did it. It seemed like the fun thing to do at that time. But how was I supposed to answer that? Whatever I answered I was going to get punished anyway.”
So I lied.
“No I didn’t.” I said.
“No, I saw you !!”, she said
“No, I didn’t do it.”, I said hoping to escape with a “your-word-against-mine” tactic.
“Don’t lie to me, I saw you put your hand in the tank.”, she said, her voice getting angrier.
Okay, maybe if I tried a different angle “No, I only touched the top of the water, I didn’t put my hand in. Reeeeaaally.”, I said, with tears welling up in my eyes.
“You’re not moving from there until you tell me the truth.”, she snapped, her face twisting menacingly.
Back to the present. Was it really that big a deal that I played with the fish? Did the fish die? Did the world come to an end? Okay, the big deal was that I lied! Yeah.You know what? I just cleaned my fish tank last night. And guess what? I played with the fish. Hehehe.
Adults, Remember That You Were A Child Once Too!
Adults! You’ve been there. You’ve been a child before. You need to remember what it was like to be a child. Try to remember what you thought of when you were a child. Your wants. Your needs. Your fears. Your worries. What made you feel happy. What made you nervous and afraid.
All a child really wants is to have fun and feel good . . . and to eat food (yes, especially the desserts and chocolates). A child’s greatest worry is probably not being able to find his favourite toy. Or missing Mummy and Daddy.
Try remembering all that. And when you do, you will now have a better understanding of your child’s behaviour, and how to handle him.
“If a child can’t learn the way you teach, maybe you should teach the way he learns.”
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