Insight From Children
March 13th, 2008, by Michael StelznerI was driving my daughter to school and she said this, “Daddy, I know how to be the sun.”
“How?” I asked.
“Dress up in a big yellow costume and fly up into the air,” she explained.
I said, “How do you fly up in the air?”
“Get up on a hot air balloon,” she stated.
“What do you do then?” I asked.
She quickly responded, “You jump out and melt the clouds–you’ve gotta bring a light bulb”
What kind of amazing insight do your children bring to your day?
If you're new here, be sure to signup for my newsletter and join 20,000 others. Thanks for visiting!
Receive email updates when new articles are posted.>> Related Articles on This Blog
March 14th, 2008 at 3:38 am
I love children… They could think in very different ways than adult. Their purity make them looked amazing.
March 14th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Unfortunately, my 3 weeks old daughter can’t say anything yet
But her crying is a song for me.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Yes do think differently! I remember when one of my daughter’s was about 6 and having a temper tantrum. I told her, “Oh, you’ll be OK!”
Typical 6-year old, she spelled out what I said in her mind and said, “BOK, what do you mean I’m gonna BOK?!”
We still laugh about that one 15 years later
March 14th, 2008 at 8:37 am
When my son was in second grade, he taught me the importance of being clear and considering my audience. My husband and I were working on a project outside, and Jake came out and asked me to make him a cheese sandwich which was just toast with a slice of cheese inside (one of his favorites). I told him I was busy, but I believed he was old enough to fix one himself now that he was in second grade, and he had watched me fix chesse sandwiches many times. I told him to put the bread in the toaster to toast it, and then put the cheese on it.
He came out about 10 minutes later and just stood and watched us work. I asked him how the sandwich was. He said, “Well, I think there’s a problem with that. The toast came out just fine, but the cheese won’t pop up.”
We purchased a new toaster (melted cheese is very tenacious), and we still joke about it to this day (Jake is now 29). But it did teach me to keep my audience in mind when giving instructions. Break things down more for less sophisticated audiences, and watch for breaking things down too much for more sophisticated audiences (don’t talk down to engineers or programmers - it irritates them :> ).
March 17th, 2008 at 6:45 am
My daughter is autistic, and her main area of weakness is communication. What she says sometimes doesn’t sound quite right (based on what we’d normally consider the flow of the language) but it makes sense. Or, she’ll describe an object or a situation from a perspective that I’d normally never consider. The lesson here: there is more than one way to describe something; a different take on a subject isn’t necessarily wrong.
Also, I’ve found that I’ve had to become a bit more precise in what I say to my daughter so she fully understands what I’m asking her or telling her. I hope that’s seeped into my writing …
March 19th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Great stories and comments everyone!
March 21st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
My daughter reminds me to see the little things everyday!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:35 am
your daughter is so sweet ,yup they have more imagination and this is good article.thanks :p
March 31st, 2008 at 2:10 am
My daughter is the source of much of my inspiration - I love the way that children can explain the unexplainable in a way that makes perfect sense! Sometimes they make you feel like they know everything because relative to you, they know so little! If you’re stuck, the best way to move forward can be to think like a child or better still, ask one of them what to do!!