I watched the kids movie Grow the other day and it made me contemplate how many parents have told me that raising kids gave them
-a revival of childlike curiosity and awe towards the world and its creatures
and
-a renewal of that little kid sense of right and wrong that tells you you need to help suffering people and animals when you see them.
I know kids don’t always have this effect on their parents but I wonder what kind of impact having less little ones around will have on society by losing this feedback loop.
One easy example is that bringing home homework often leads to the whole family updating their knowledge—I remember informing my dad that iceberg lettuce had very little nutritional value after learning it in health class!
I’m not a parent yet, but my family grew by some nieces and nephews in recent years.
And while I’m not around them all the time, when I am, it definetly feels refreshing to hear their points of views or have them ask questions about things that I, as an adult, take for granted.
And more often than not these questions lead to new knowledge for myself, when we decide to look for more than just the surface level answers.
So I’d agree with the two listed ‘benefits’ of yours, if given the chance children can be a great opportunity for learning and growing as a person. One needs to make use of that opportunity though. I see a lot of parents dismiss questions with ‘obvious’ answers or even getting somewhat annoyed at times.