Is your child trying to spite you?

2 days ago

2 min read

In Japan, someone came up with a rather brilliant idea: what if adults could experience the world through the eyes - and body - of a child?

The Kids’ Perspective Exhibition did exactly that.

Adults wore a 21-kilogram baby head to experience the top-heavy awkwardness of infancy. They lugged oversized school backpacks, struggled to reach door handles and wobbled across uneven surfaces.

Funny? Absolutely. Eye-opening? Even more so.

Adults reported feeling vulnerable, disoriented and overwhelmed.

Sound familiar? These are feelings many children experience every day, except they don't get to take the costume off and go home.

Now, think about your average Tuesday morning.

Your toddler spills their drink. Again. They take approximately seventeen business days to put on their shoes. And that spoon? Somehow, more food ends up on the floor than in their mouth....(OMG - someone save me..!)

You're tired. You're late. And your patience is hanging by a thread.

But what if your child isn't trying to make your life difficult? What if their body simply hasn't caught up with the demands of the world around them?

We often see our children's clumsiness as something to correct, their slowness as something to hurry along, and their struggles as behaviour to manage. Yet these little humans are still learning how to operate their own bodies.

When they drop something, they're developing coordination. When they bump into furniture or struggle with a spoon, they're still refining their movements and learning how their bodies work.

What looks like incompetence to us is often the very process through which competence develops.

And when we expect them to move, react and manage themselves like miniature adults, we forget one rather important detail: they're still becoming.

The next time your child spills the juice or takes forever to get out of the door, take a breath. You don't have to celebrate the mess or pretend you aren't running late. (We're parents, not saints.)

But perhaps you can pause long enough to ask yourself: Is this behaviour my child needs to change, or is this a skill they're still learning?

That small shift can change how you respond - and how your child experiences you.

This is exactly why, at Academicus, we create opportunities for parents and children to explore the world together. In our weekday Sensory classes for Babies and Toddlers, and especially during our weekend activities, we invite you to slow down, get down to your child's level and rediscover the wonder of seeing the world through their eyes.

Sometimes, the most important thing we can teach our children is something we adults need to learn first: how to see the world from someone else's perspective.

Here's to raising smarter, more confident & resilient children - and more often than not, it starts with us.