What Do Children See?

 What do children see?

Of course, they see what's around them. But as every good reader of Alice in Wonderland knows, they see what's not around them, too. 

There is an inner life and an outer life, and they (magnificently) know it by the time they are five (if not before).

That's why they can take imaginary journeys so easily with storytellers and why writers like Isaac Bashevis Singer love writing for children so much. You don't have to explain the magic -- they know it's there and don't worry about how it got there.

What do children see?

The dark, the monsters, the anger the adults in their lives are always trying to hide from them. They see their parents yelling and exasperated. They see us at our best and at our worst.

What do they learn?

They learn whether what we are saying is true or a lie. They may not learn it right away but they all do, eventually. They learn what pleases us and if they love us or even want to love us, they learn how to do whatever it is that makes us pleased.

They learn about what they need to do to survive and some learn how to be successful and others to risk everything, including failure, and others learn to fail because it is expected of them. 

What do children want?

They want what everyone wants -- love, shelter, kindness, success, great success, great love, romance, adventure, fearlessness.

They learn there is a vast ocean of difference for most of them between what they want and what they can get.

They learn how to avoid danger if they grew up dangerously, or is someone was hitting or abusing them.

They learn how to find reserves of strength and how to use whatever they have to find whatever it is they are looking for.

What do children do?

Everything they see and learn goes into what they do.

What do children see? Learn? Want?

Everything.

We must remember.

Everything.

Pouting girl photo: greg westfall