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The best $4 ever spent

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Re: The best $4 ever spent

#21

Post by chazeon »

aantix wrote: post #16

We took our kids to Disney World once. When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, they responded.. The hot tub. At the hotel. My kids light up the most when I am fully engaged with them, fully present, entertaining their ideas, and asking questions. Their favorite family trip so far? When we traveled to Arkansas to mine for crystals. AKA, dig in the dirt all day. They saw it on a YouTube video. They asked t…

Even as an adult I enjoy time when some other person I am spending time with is fully engaged and fully present, I’d call it quality time, but it’s just so rare…

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#23

Post by abeppu »

Certainly it's true that kids can get a lot of joy out of something that to an adult seems really small or boring. But the flip side is kids can get totally emotionally distraught or enraged over tiny things.

Are these two sides of the same coin, and come from having just a smaller world, where small things can feel very big to a developing brain? Or as an adult with a fully-formed brain and access to the larger world, can we separate them and find that kind of unrestrained joy in the small stuff without also being swept away by small disappointments?

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#24

Post by RobinL »

Yesterday the rain was torrential when I picked up my 5yo from school with my 2yo. I brought wellies and we walked up and down the streams of water running down the hill. The kids were more excited than anything we've paid for recently.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#26

Post by j7ake »

The issue is you don’t know which of the 0-5 dollar products to spend that will make them excited.

A strategy is therefore to buy lots of cheap stuff and experiences, and let the kids have the option to choose. Then throw away the stuff they don’t care for.

If you buy expensive things, you tend to try to force that thing onto the kid, which can be counter productive.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#27

Post by j7ake »

abeppu wrote: post #23

Certainly it's true that kids can get a lot of joy out of something that to an adult seems really small or boring. But the flip side is kids can get totally emotionally distraught or enraged over tiny things. Are these two sides of the same coin, and come from having just a smaller world, where small things can feel very big to a developing brain? Or as an adult with a fully-formed brain and access to the larger worl…

Yes. Basically kids can have strong emotional reactions to seemingly small things.

Re: The best $4 ever spent

#29

Post by brink »

I've been spending my entire adult life trying to rediscover this spiritual joy of being a child. I remember it so fondly. My daughter is about to turn 2 and I'm secretly hoping that she can help me find at least a little of it.
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