Loving your child's mind: Advantages and Disadvantages of Growing Up
Four children discuss what they look forward to and dread about growing up. They want independence and new experiences but worry about taxes, health problems, and stress. When asked to rate their eagerness to become adults, their answers ranged from 1 to 5.
Chapters
Okay, so one of the things I was wondering about today was, um, what are the— what are the advantages and disadvantages of growing up? So are there any advantages to growing up?
Yes.
Okay, well, let's go Alana first and then Sankara. What are the advantages of growing up?
Um, one of the advantages of growing up is you get to experience more things and you get to maybe have more things than your, than your younger siblings.
Okay, you get to experience more things and then you get to have more material things than your younger siblings. Yeah. Okay, Sankara, how about you? What are the advantages of growing up?
You get to learn new things.
You get to learn new things. Okay. Any other advantages? Well, okay. So Alana said you get to experience more things, and then you get more material things. And then Sankara says you get to learn more things. Marwa, are there any other advantages of growing up?
Yes.
What are they? Can you name another advantage of growing up?
Being yourself.
Being yourself. Say more about that. That's very interesting. How does it go?
When you grow up, you will be living your own life in a different house than your parents, and you know, you can even live in another state or another country or another place.
Okay. That's, that's huge. Um, yeah, and you would say that if you can live in your own house, then you can be yourself more than if you're a kid?
Yeah.
Okay. Magat, how about you? What are the advantages of growing up? Maggot, can you— are there advantages to growing up?
No.
No advantages to growing up? Okay, let's look at disadvantages now. Are there any disadvantages to growing up? We've got Alana and then Sankara. Go ahead, Alana.
Well, you have more responsibilities. You have to take care of yourself and you have to pay more or like pay taxes and like kind of worry about that.
Okay, and why are those disadvantages?
Well, they take away from your supply and sometimes it can be hard.
Okay, um, Sankara, what are the disadvantages of growing up according to you?
Um, So if you, if you, um, as you grow up, like, you get problems and, um, you're more likely to get diseases and die quicker and stuff.
Wow, that's grim. Um, so you get problems and then diseases and die. Um, but kids have problems too, right?
So except because, um, older people have like the immune systems have been working for longer, then it starts getting weaker and weaker. And then that means children's immune systems, unless you're a baby, is stronger than, um, my dad's.
Got it. Um, so the, you've definitely got the getting sick part down the, you know, uh, diseases of aging and so forth. How about problems? Are you just— or were you saying just health problems, or do adults have other health prob— other problems beyond health problems?
They also have mental problems.
So you think adults have more mental problems than kids?
Yeah, because, um, my dad always shouts while he's driving on the highway because some people just swerve him when they're in the wrong lane.
Got it. So they also have to deal with people like bad drivers and whatnot.
Yeah.
Okay, Marwa, what disadvantages are there to growing up from your perspective?
I don't have really much, but yeah.
Do you think, do you think that growing up is mostly a positive thing with few or no disadvantages?
Yeah.
Um, what about Alana saying, do you have to pay taxes and you take on all these responsibilities? Do you think those are not a big deal?
No.
Okay. And how about Sankara saying, as you get older, you, um, you know, are more likely to get sick and, um, your immune system's weaker and all that. Is that a disadvantage of getting older?
Yeah.
Okay, so you would say that one is a disadvantage. How about problems like, um, you know, people cutting you off in the car, you know, bad drivers and things like that? Is that a problem?
Yes.
Okay, okay, so you would say that's a problem too, Alana. Um, all right, uh, Magat, any disadvantages of growing up that you can think of?
What? Can you repeat please?
Are there any disadvantages of growing up?
Yes.
I think disadvantages may be a hard word for him. Um, what is disadvantage in French?
What?
I was gonna— Magat, I'm trying to ask Magat if what are the disadvantages of growing up? Disadvantage. What are the disadvantages of growing up? Disadvantage. Disadvantage. Yeah, disadvantage.
You, if you are getting old, you can, you, you be sick, and sometimes, sometimes you, you can't walk.
Okay, you get old, you get sick, and sometimes you can't walk. Okay, so yeah, there's all that. Go ahead, Alana.
Uh, and as you get older, maybe you would have more stress. Stress and anxiety, maybe, because like you've never been on your own before.
Oh, okay. But Marwa thinks being on his own is going to be great. Is that, is that right, Marwa? You think— Alana's saying that being on your own means stress and anxiety.
Well, it doesn't mean that, but maybe for some people they get that.
Okay. What do you think, Marwa? Is being on your own going to be stressful and anxious?
No.
And is— do you think that's just because you personally will never be stressed by it?
Yeah.
Do you think there are some parents, some people who are stressed and anxious because of adulthood and being on their own?
Yeah.
Okay, so do any of you really look forward to, um, growing up? How about— how about let's do this. On a scale of 0 to 10, 10 is I can't wait to grow up. 0 is no, no, no, I want to stay a kid forever. Where are you in terms of eagerness to grow up?
I'm like a, maybe like a 5, or it's like somewhere in the middle because I don't want to stay a kid forever, but I don't want to grow up that fast.
So it sounds like, Alana, if you're a 5, maybe that means you're growing up at just the right pace. That is not too fast, not too slow. It's all coming at you just at the right pace. Yeah. OK. Sankara, how about you?
A 1 or a 2.
You want to stay a kid?
Yeah.
Why?
Because so basically, here's what to do. Like explore new things. And adults know so much things, but they don't have much to explore. And also, um, that means, um, that, um, if your parents want to stay adults here and they'll die from diseases, then you can do whatever you want in the fridge.
Got it. So you see all these advantages of being a kid. You get to explore all over the place and And you're not eager to get all these adult diseases. So that's why you want to stay a kid? Got it. Marwa, how about you?
I'll take it with a 5.
Okay. So for you as well as Alana, you're growing up at just about the right pace, not too fast, not too slow. Okay. It's funny because when you said that, you know, it seemed like to me you were really excited about growing up because you could be on your own. And you could be your own self. But it sounds like even though that's an advantage, um, you're in no rush. Is that correct?
Yeah.
Okay. And Magat, are you eager to become an adult? Are you happy to be a kid? I can't hear you, Magat.
I don't want to be— I want— I don't want to growing up fastly and not slowly.
Okay, you don't want to grow up too fast or too slow?
Okay, all right. Well, I want to keep the— this short today. It was really fascinating for me to hear the advantages and disadvantages of growing up. And I'm glad that most of you are happy with the way it's going. And I hope, Sankara, you get a lot of joy out of being a kid. Because sooner or later, we all grow up. It happens to all of us. So thanks, everybody. Have a wonderful week. And I look forward to talking to you next week. Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye. Thank you.
