What People Can Learn From Babies

Hello again, dear readers,

While tonight's Republican shitshow *ahem* presidential debate is streaming in the background, I needed some distractions to keep sober and positive. It was while remarking to my husband that the baby's full diapers have more intelligence than these fools put together that I was inspired to write this post in line with the prompt for Day 10 of the 21 day blogging challenge. Thankfully, the stream crashed and I went back to binge watching Ghost Adventures for a bit.

Send in the clowns...

My short time as a parent has taught me a number of things about children that I never would otherwise have learned. Given the astounding level of hatred directed towards children and their caregivers by the culture at large (reducing children down to an object of "choice" will do that), here are a few redeeming qualities I've observed about the little ones which even biggers like us can stand to learn from.

• They're resilient
• Children are incredibly resilient. A small bump on the head or a minor cold won't slow them down, whereas someone like me would be cooped up in bed. Even after enduring major traumas, children try to bounce back as best as they can. That's a lesson in endurance everyone can benefit from.
• Kids have a great bullshit detector
• When my daughter was a newborn, if she didn't like somebody, she would cry and raise a fuss. Though she is less apt to act up now, if she still has misgivings about somebody, she will fuss. I've also observed that older children are not likely to hold back about their impressions of people. Just like pets, babies are great indicators of someone's character. Those gut feelings aren't totally worthless.
• They take joy in simple things



Playing with a makeup brush pouch. Future MUA like mommy?

• Toys are overrated. Give my daughter some paper or cloth and she will play with that. She has some toys, but she gets bored with those after a while. She definitely prefers the grown up stuff. We biggers can learn to appreciate the imagination once more instead of having an app do our thinking for us.
• Little brains are always learning
• The first three years of a human's life are of an unparalleled explosion in brain growth and learning. At 2-4 months, my daughter would yell, pause, and resume yelling as if she were imitating the pattern of conversations my husband and I would have around her and each other. At 6 months, she had learned to sit up with some assistance and when stood up, her balance was developing. Now at 8 months, she babbles, but can say "dada" ("daddy") and "ayo" ("cat"; imitating their meows). The big lesson here is that learning should never stop. School can help, but so can our friends, family, and the internet.

I may not be able to change our cultural views surrounding children, but I hope this is a good start.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!