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Most of us outgrow and then forget how cool water makes small children shiver, hunger and sun makes them weak, bitter vegetables are overpowering, sitting on gr
by aitchnyu 7y ago
Most of us outgrow and then forget how cool water makes small children shiver, hunger and sun makes them weak, bitter vegetables are overpowering, sitting on grass without pants is painful, so is affection, unpolished wooden benches, men's stubble etc.
- bostonpete 7y agoI assume you don't really mean that affection is painful for small children...(?)
- taejo 7y agoI guess they're referring to things like kids running away from distant relatives who want to kiss and hug them, which is definitely something that happens.
- duderific 7y agoProbably because of the big sloppy kisses that grandmas tend to distribute.
- taejo 7y agoThat's definitely part of it, but I think (and I also remember) that a part of it is that children have a well-developed sense of personal space and who they are close enough to for different types of contact, from a pretty young age, but their sense of closeness is (quite reasonably) derived from actual (remembered) contact rather than from having a genetic relationship or contact before they can remember.
- c0vfefe 7y agoIt's not so much a conscious sense of personal space as it is discomfort with the unfamiliar.
- c0vfefe 7y agoWe have to remember that kids don't have any reason to love distant relatives, and that adults don't have the right to demand physical affection from kids.
- aitchnyu 7y agoCheek tweaking, heavy pats on back etc.
- patall 7y agoI think in this case it has more to do with that kids (and younger people in general) can hear better and at a broader frequency spectrum. I (and I know other people with the same problem) for example am always irritated why induction cooking plates make such painful noise but as most people cannot hear them, industry gets away with that. Same for those ultrasound devices to protect cars against martens that can get as loud as 200 Db.
- zaroth 7y ago> men’s stubble One of my great joys in life is how much my daughter loves my stubble. She grabs my face with both her hands and declares “Sooooo scratchy!” and then squeals and laughs when I nuzzle her cheek with mine and pretend to be a horse. From ~3 yrs old, now going on 10. My heart will definitely break a notch if the day ever comes she outgrows that!
- cr0sh 7y agoShe may outgrow it, but she'll probably never forget it. I'm a guy, but I recall as a kid feeling my dad's stubble when I gave him a hug as a child, when he came home from work, smelling of sweat and tar (he worked as a road maintenance worker - a very hard job, especially in the summertime in California). He passed away 14 years ago, and I'm turning 46 in a couple days; how time passes...
- 52-6F-62 7y agoCan confirm—and ah that sounds familiar. My own dad was a pipefitter-wleder in an oil refinery. I can still smell that and the feel of the work denim he'd come home in.
- arkades 7y agoSame here. My strongest sense memories of my dad are the feel of his shirt against my cheek when I'd run up to hug him when he got home from work, the feel of the callouses on his fingers, and the stubble on his cheek under my hand. I remember those things more often than I do the sight of his face, or the sound of his voice, or the smell of his cologne. By far.
- cultofmetatron 7y agoreminds me of this particular comic http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3317 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3317
- EADGBE 7y agoI love that my kids love it too. I hate that it immediately makes their skin break out as if there's a rash, though. (All fair-skinned red heads).
- jl6 7y ago> cool water makes small children shiver Is it just my kids then that seem absolutely immune to cold water and will happily jump into unheated swimming pools, and will happily have a cold bath?
- jalk 7y agoI have a hunch its the same ‘physiology’ that causes selective hearing. “Please turn off the iPad!” vs “who wants ice cream?”
- ra88it 7y agoI noticed my boy was happy getting into cold water as a toddler (compared to adults who suffer during the transition from air to cold water). Now he's four years old, and a few weeks ago we swam together in a cold lake. He was happy to get in, but after ten minutes I noticed that his teeth were chattering and his lips were blue, while I was quite comfortable.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoHaving been a cub scout leader and now a parent you see that kids don't really have a great sensitivity to their own body temperature. They'll wear hot coats in Summer and tshirt in Winter unless you tell them not to, they're usually pretty far gone (sunstroke/hypothermic) before they will realise for themselves that there's something wrong. I don't think they really get a good idea until they are about a year in to puberty, and even then they're more prone to mismanage their clothing (but I think that's just experience). Also worth bearing in mind that younger kids have higher body temperature, and that they usually have lower surface area:volume ratios than bigger people.
- papln 7y agoThere are two dimensions here -- one is that they may not feel it at all; the other is that they may feel it but not realize it's bad until it's too late, and might not attribute cause. For example, going out in the cold doesn't hurt at first, but the pain builds up. As an adult, you may react to the initial no-pain sensation because you correctly predict you'll be freezing later. Also consider that as an adult the same feeling can be both good or bad by mental context: consider a warm toilet seat -- warmed by a fancy Toto heater at home vs warmed by a stranger's buttocks in a fast food bathroom.
- dokem 7y agoI remember my dad would rub his stubble against my cheeks when playing monster after he caught me. It was always so intense and visceral. I loved it.