Some kids seem to think they’re the main character of a movie when they embark on all sorts of adventures. They might feel they’re in charge or believe themselves to be untouchable. They can also make the executive decision to treat everything around them like a prop; even if it’s a live seagull, for instance.

This exact scenario (yup, a kid successfully caught a seagull after using gummy worms as bait) and other comedy movie-like situations appeared on a recent Twitter thread, started by the user DianaG2772. She told the online community members about her call with the school regarding her daughter’s bird hunting abilities, and they made sure to share their own stories with her. Scroll down to find their humorous accounts below and make sure to have some popcorn ready.

source: who cares

#1

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Some things children do might seem unusual or dangerous, but imagine yourself in their shoes—the world was your oyster when you were a little troublemaker yourself. (I sure remember being shouted at for constantly climbing the trees as a kid.) That’s because their behavior is often influenced by experience (or lack of) that we gain over the years.

When we’re little, we don’t have a lot of practice or know-how we can base our actions on. For instance, we might not know that a burn hurts until the first time we touch something hot. Or we might not understand that our feet will get wet if we jump into a puddle before we make a huge splash.

That’s why some argue that it’s important to allow children to face risks to a certain extent. It can help them learn how to properly evaluate such risks as well as a thing or two about consequences (the key aspect of the operant conditioning theory).

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The senior lecturer and course leader on Montessori Education courses at Anglia Ruskin University, Michelle Wisbey, pointed out that a child’s first instinct is to experience everything firsthand.

They are believed to have an innate desire to take certain risks in order to challenge themselves and weigh the level of danger against the benefit. That allows them to develop certain skills and make life interesting and fulfilling, according to Dr. Wisbey.

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Making life interesting is one of the many possible explanations for children’s peculiar activities. They might take action to make it even more fascinating or to attain something that causes joy. Enjoyment falls among the three main driving forces for their behavior distinguished by Joel L. Young, the medical director of the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine outside of Detroit. The two remaining ones are acting a certain way to communicate something or to cope with children’s own emotions, such as anger or fear.

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Other incentives behind children’s (as well as others’ despite their age, as a matter of fact) actions are often based on one of the five levels of human needs. Developed by Maslow, these levels include physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs. The latter is the very top of Maslow’s pyramid-like hierarchy. Kids, as well as adults, have the same innate desires, which is why it’s important to understand them and how they can affect the child’s development or behavior.

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The developmental psychologist and expert in children’s motivation and behavior Nancy Buck pointed out that the need for safety is biological as well as psychological. “Your children, in all they do, are driven by these same biological and psychological needs. In addition, behavior is purposeful: an attempt to meet one or more of the five psychological needs,” she said.

In addition to fulfilling their needs, kids’ actions have to have a goal, which eventually leads to their actions being effective or not. When it’s not, there is no reward and there might be no point in repeating them again.

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However, some purposeful actions are only effective at the expense of someone else. For instance, taking another kid’s candy might have a purpose and effective outcome, but it’s not the right thing to do. In situations such as this, children are simply following one of their basic human needs, which is why it’s important to let them know that their behavior is not appropriate.

“As a parent, your job is to help your children learn how to meet their psychological needs responsibly and respectfully,” Nancy Buck emphasized. “Often, the best time to teach children how to meet their needs in responsible and respectful ways is when kids are misbehaving. This is the moment when children are most motivated. They really want what they want and they are willing to learn a different, more effective way to get what they want.”

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There might be hundreds of reasons why kids misbehave. According to Very Well Family, they act out because they have big emotions or unmet needs, they’re testing certain limits or trying to show their independence, among other things. By doing this, they might be carrying out their own little research into the world they live in.

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The psychologist and author Erica Reischer expands on kids misbehaving in relation to exploring the world in her article for Psychology Today. “When your child appears to be misbehaving, try imagining her wearing a tiny white lab coat and taking notes about the results of her experiment (on you) in an imaginary lab notebook.

“Seeing our children’s behavior through this lens—as an experiment aimed at getting useful information about how people and the world work—can also help us not to take it personally when they push our buttons or ignore us,” she added.

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In addition to seeing children as scientists or trying to walk a mile in their tiny shoes, it might be beneficial to pay attention to what they have to say as well. 10-year-old Anyue Sun shared her reasons why parents should listen to kids in her TEDx Talk. The young girl believes that by restricting their child and not hearing what they have to say, the grown-ups become so-called Snowplow parents, which can often lead to certain problems later in the kid’s life.

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In her talk, Anyue Sun emphasized that kids need their parents to show support instead of solving everything for them. The Child Mind Institute pointed out that children have to make decisions at all ages; that is why allowing them to practice from the get-go can make it easier to deal with bigger decisions in the future.

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When it comes to kids’ actions, sometimes the best thing to do is to sit back and watch (as long as they don’t cross certain lines, of course). It’s not always easy, and their reasoning might seem cloudy at best, but they have to learn and experience certain things on their own. Even if it means using candy to catch a bird.

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Source: boredpanda.com