4 ultimate life-lessons you can learn from children

There is a whole lot out there who don’t like to pop out a biological child, but dote on nieces/nephews.

 

Or make for the charming babysitters of the town.

I don’t belong to them either.

I get tired with constant baby-chatters. Heck, many of the kids are downright rude, who just stare and don’t share their ice-creams with you.

But there are plethora of good things one can learn from kids.

I do.

 

1. Burning the bridges

“Kids are pro at- not only burning bridges but nuke them.”– Click To Tweet

It’s only when we become adult, we get lobotomized in carrying around toxic people in our life. We fear to ruffle the feathers.

When I was 7, a nagging aunt used to visit our household. Pinching my cheeks, coochie-cooing and hovering over like a hawk were her favorite activities.

One day while I was playing with my doll, she kept flustering me in her inimitable “baby voice”.

“Please go back to your home, it’s already late for your lunch”– snapped back I, once my tolerance-limit hit the bottom, much to the dismay of my part-furious, part-embarrassed mother.

I was not proud of what I did (okay, a li’l bit) but from the next day, the aunt vanished into thin air.

Point:

While adulting and learning 101 ways of networking, we have repeatedly been taught the virtue of not burning bridges.

But children are unfazed.

They shoo away those who are pain-in-the-ass.

This is akin to cutting toxic people off your life, like-

• Clients who don’t pay
• Relatives who laugh at your broken engagement
• Friends who slap your FB feed with photos of their exotic vacays and giving you major FOMO.

 

 

 

2. Not paying heed to naysayers  

Kids are famous for making good usage of two ears.

They take in the advice, analyze it on the ‘usability’-scale and then take out.

And this is a badass practice to follow towards peeps who- try to shame you for the choices you’ve made or just for being yourself.

 

 

Point:

In case you’re like me and hate confrontations/debates, then in the face of killjoys, smile vaguely, nod and do what you gotta do.

 

3. Children are always work-in-progress

Tweaking, moving, stirring things up, asking questions are some of the qualities I get to see in children a lot.

It’s a shame that adulthood equates to –smile like a Zen in the face of a**-holes, keeping your calm, bottling things up and peeing in public (the last one is only in Indian context).

 

I ain’t any child-psychology expert, but observing kids gives me a rough idea that in their subconscious mind, children see themselves as work-in-progress.

 

It’s only the know-it-all, settled-down adults who pester on you should stick to-

• the major you’ve chosen at the age 18,
• the person you’ve married at 27 (and now bickering and mud-slinging with) and 
• upholding the tradition of procreation, even if all you want to nurture even in life are cats. 

 

Point:

Voltaire summed it up best-

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”

 

4. Being body-positive

Kids don’t think much about the shape of the nose, perkiness of breasts or love handles.

It’s the toxic popular media projecting a certain body type and the adults shoving it down others’ throats are to blame for body issues among adolescents/teenagers.

When my friends and I were kids (pre-high school), jelly-belly, jingling thighs or mustaches were hardly on our priority list.

There were more pressing issues at hand like-

• homework,
• games,
• sharing notes,
• bitching about parents 
• confusion about the birds-and-the-bees etc.

It’s all changed when we transitioned to high-school. But that is the story for another day.

 

 

Point:

Learning to be comfortable inside your skin, admiring the reflection of your nakedness on the mirror are some of the virtues one can learn from kids.

Even if those damn baby-voices scream like banshee, grate on your nerves and make you see red.

 

 

 

Do you like children? What qualities do you think one can imbibe from babies? 

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