Lies
Apologies for the dearth of recent posts. I’m working a lot on other projects in my off time. For now, I am going to suggest reading the essay Lies We Tell Kids by Paul Graham. Plenty of things to think about, you probably won’t agree with them all, but that’s why we read, yes? Plenty of pithy snippets, but I’ll highlight this one:
If parents told their kids the truth about sex and drugs, it would be: the reason you should avoid these things is that you have lousy judgement. People with twice your experience still get burned by them. But this may be one of those cases where the truth wouldn’t be convincing, because one of the symptoms of bad judgement is believing you have good judgement. When you’re too weak to lift something, you can tell, but when you’re making a decision impetuously, you’re all the more sure of it.
Go read it.
14. May 2008 at 22:29
“Very smart adults often seem unusually innocent, and I don’t think this is a coincidence. I think they’ve deliberately avoided learning about certain things. Certainly I do. I used to think I wanted to know everything. Now I know I don’t.”
-Very interesting article. Had to think twice about this concept (among others); I think I agree. So with two inquisitive kids are you pre-planning your answers? Good post Josh.
15. May 2008 at 21:11
We’ve already had to cross some of these bridges. Sera has asked:
-If Chickens are scared to be raised, killed, and cut up for food.
-Why the fish at the market don’t have faces.
-What happens when we die.
-Why we lock our cars and houses.
-Why there are bad people.
And so on. She also asks things like how to get to space. And she’s 4, so I think we might have a bumpy ride.
19. May 2008 at 23:44
Some of those make ‘where do babies come from?’ sound easy. Good luck…glad we’ll have you and Flo to ask a million questions of when it’s our turn.
24. May 2008 at 15:49
i love your daughter
There are times when I worry what I would tell a kid, where i wish we could have a kid and then you could raise it for us, in the sense of you being the one that answered all the “tough” questions, cause i think you get it right.
i think I’ll read that essay again and suggest the guy write an entire book on the subject
24. May 2008 at 20:51
Wow, that sounds like a sweet deal.