The Daily Dad

Kids See Through To What Matters

Dec 18, 2019

02:42

Snipd AI

Kids have a knack for finding joy in the simple things, reminding adults to appreciate the true significance of experiences. They may not care about what we expect them to, but they see through societal constructs and focus on what truly matters.

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Kids have a unique ability to find joy in simple things and prioritize what truly matters over societal expectations or material possessions.

Children's perspective of appreciating the little things aligns with the philosophy of stripping away unnecessary constructs, allowing us to find wonder in the everyday moments that we often overlook.

Deep dives

Kids see through to what matters

Kids have a unique ability to see through the constructs and expectations that adults often place importance on. They may not show interest in what we think is significant, like expensive gifts or important events, but they find joy and wonder in simple, ordinary things. They appreciate free popcorn at a basketball game more than expensive floor seats, and they value spending time with their grandparents over meeting their parent's billionaire boss. Despite their indifference at times, kids secretly think their parents are cool and often imitate them. Through their perspective, we can learn to strip away the unnecessary and focus on what truly matters.

Kids See Through To What Matters

3min

You can sit your kids down to watch what you think is the greatest movie of all time, and they’ll get bored and fall asleep. You can get floor seats to an NBA game and they’ll roll their eyes. You can introduce them to your fanciest, most important friends and they’ll want to go back to whatever they were doing before you called them over.

It’s almost a rule that kids don’t care about what you really, really want them to care about. And yet, there is something about kids that also seems to resemble that hilarious line from Homer Simpson. “I’m not easily impressed,” he tells Mr. Burns as they’re driving. Then he looks out the window and shouts, “Whoa! A blue car!”

Your kids might not understand how expensive those floor seats were, but they love that there is free popcorn. They might not appreciate that classic movie, but they can also play in the dirt with rapt presence for three hours. They don’t care about your billionaire boss, but they think Grandma and Grandpa are the two coolest people in the entire world. Whether they admit it or not, they think you are cool. That’s why they copy you, that’s why they want to put on your shoes, that’s why the t-shirt you gave them from when you were young is the one they love to sleep in every night.

Kids aren’t easily impressed, and yet somehow they are. It’s really that they see through most of the constructs us adults have taken for granted. They can naturally do what Marcus Aurelius practices in Meditations, the art of stripping things of the “legend that encrusts them.” Meanwhile, they also see simple, ordinary things for all the wonder and beauty that the rest of us miss. They see how little most things matter, and see how much other things do.

And in this we can learn a great deal from them.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.