Lessons of life
What exactly do we teach our kids? That’s what I find myself wondering at times. OK, I don’t wonder that all the time but recently, I’ve had more occasion to wonder about this than usual :p We have our nephew and niece staying with us for a couple of weeks at the moment. Ike, our nephew, is five years old and so, he gives me plenty of things to think about 🙂
This latest train of thought was set off on its merry way when Ike was watching a movie. Now Ike’s mother and sister have a habit of covering his eyes when a "bad part" comes up in the movie. This is not usually Ike’s choice mind you – they just decide what they think is something that will scare him and then cover his eyes. Or tell him to cover his eyes. It made me wonder what he actually thinks about all of this and what goes through his mind when his eyes are covered?
Personally, I think it would be more terrifying for me to have my eyes covered and not to know what is going on. I’d be imagining all sorts of horrible things going on on the screen – much worse than what was actually happening. But then again, I have a really vivid imagination :p
The thing is, what are we most afraid of? I think what we fear the most is what is unknown. Which probably also explains why a lot of us fear the dark and death :p Wouldn’t it be better to know what is going on on the screen and to let understanding illuminate the dark corners of our imagination rather than to have our eyes covered and not to know what actually is going on? I would think so. But then again, most "adults" don’t seem to think this is an option. Perhaps because they always live under the impression that children are somehow less capable of dealing with emotions and new sensations than the "adults" are – shows how much they know :p