January 2020
For the past 5 months, my eldest child has been “really into child psychology.” On average, she asks around 575 questions per day, in general, since age 3. Lately, many of those questions sound similar to : “If I were to be babysitting a 2 year old and a pizza man came to the door, could I leave them in the living room while retrieving the pizza? Would that feel safe to them? What about age 4? Or maybe age 6? Would they feel alone?”
She led me to the basement this past weekend to sort through bins of books searching for, “Anything to do with ‘why’ and ‘thinking’ and ‘kids.”
Yesterday afternoon, she researched online Psychology courses and forwarded me the class descriptions and prices, highlighting one that suggested that Pavlov’s principles could apply to both pets and small children.
I’m not confident there’s much self refection as she devours the text. One of the primary practices of child psychology is displacement, you know.
This morning, after reading a fresh chapter, she met me in the kitchen to proclaim, “I am just so curious about child psychology. fascinating.”
She is 11.
Not That Good Grief 