Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Mommy is Omniscient

Little kids seem to think that their parents are omniscient. Sometimes, they'll see something when their parents are not in the room; but, they'll simply assume that their parents have seen it too. It's an age when they do not fully grasp that observation is an active process. I've seen this in kids under 3. Even around 4, I remember my son sometimes lapsing into this: like he forgot that I would not have observed something just because he did.

(I wonder if the behavior where young kids hide their faces and think they're hidden is related to this.)

One of the fascinating things about being a parent is seeing a human's thinking develop. Being an Objectivist, I'd always accepted the idea that humans are born tabula-rasa. However, when one has kid, then one really sees the concretization of this... there are so many instances when I've been surprised that something was not simply "obvious" to my child... in simple things like the identification of shape and color and so on.

If I'd had the time to journal it all, it might have been a useful book!