As a parent to a 5 and a 2 yo, once kids can communicate they can often be reasoned with. Most things that I ask them as a parent are things they dont want to do, like brush their teeth or don’t throw their toys or share with their sister. As a parent it’s my job to make them understand WHY those things are important and worth doing.
Brush your teeth so they dont decay and need to be cut out.
Dont throw toys because they will break and get thrown away or be taken away for everyones safety.
Share with your sister because if you cant cooperate with people they wont cooperate with you when you want them to.
Breaking down the reasons to language a kid can understand is generally successful and certainly much better than trying to force your kids to comply with expectations based on nothing more than “because I said so”, which was a common refrain said to me and my siblings growing up.
Out of curiosity, I always wondered… when do they start being conscious?
Like we all don’t remember our first years… but at some point, we know we are, we remember, and we see our hands, and go like, “wtf, i’m a person”, and so on
That’s… tough to define. TBH Consciousness itself is poorly defined.
Even before they learn language they can communicate, and they respond to their parents voices even in utero. If anything I would say that they just slowly become more conscious over time.
As a parent to a 5 and a 2 yo, once kids can communicate they can often be reasoned with. Most things that I ask them as a parent are things they dont want to do, like brush their teeth or don’t throw their toys or share with their sister. As a parent it’s my job to make them understand WHY those things are important and worth doing.
Brush your teeth so they dont decay and need to be cut out.
Dont throw toys because they will break and get thrown away or be taken away for everyones safety.
Share with your sister because if you cant cooperate with people they wont cooperate with you when you want them to.
Breaking down the reasons to language a kid can understand is generally successful and certainly much better than trying to force your kids to comply with expectations based on nothing more than “because I said so”, which was a common refrain said to me and my siblings growing up.
Out of curiosity, I always wondered… when do they start being conscious?
Like we all don’t remember our first years… but at some point, we know we are, we remember, and we see our hands, and go like, “wtf, i’m a person”, and so on
That’s… tough to define. TBH Consciousness itself is poorly defined.
Even before they learn language they can communicate, and they respond to their parents voices even in utero. If anything I would say that they just slowly become more conscious over time.