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A coworker in grad school was from China and talked about at age 3 needing to go to the market to buy some basic groceries, fix his own food, and he was alone i

A coworker in grad school was from China and talked about at age 3 needing to go to the market to buy some basic groceries, fix his own food, and he was alone in the apartment while his parents worked. It was an eye opening conversation to have just a handful of years ago. Starting around age 6 or 7 I was going into the woods playing with a friend and by 11 or so my parents had no problem with me riding my bike whwrever I wanted to around town, well before I had a cell phone.

the_af 4y ago
Wow. At age 3 some children cannot fully verbalize what they want or need, and some still are not potty trained. I'm ready to accept some 3 year olds can do this, but I think it's unreasonable to expect most children at age 3 to be able to go to the supermarket to buy groceries and fix their own food...
- bombcar 4y ago
  Depending on what you define "fix your own food" as, most 3 year olds will be able to do something akin to it; if permitted. Our one year old could walk to the kitchen and extract things from the fridge, though she would have difficulty opening some of them.
  - the_af 4y ago
    My 3 year old cannot open the fridge, she doesn't have the strength/dexterity. She cannot open lids either. She cannot fix any kind of meal without making a mess. With play-doh she pretends to make meals and definitely makes a mess (and enjoys herself tremendously in the process). She absolutely cannot go to the supermarket to buy anything, and she cannot cross the street either. A 3 year old doing all those things... I'm willing to believe some can, but it's definitely not the norm, and not because we don't let them. They just can't.
    - RalfWausE 4y ago
      I think this is more of a "you have to" thing: I vividly remember many 3 - 4 year olds on the vietnamese side of my family being MUCH more ahead of the ones from the german side... i would think it could be that we in the west put too little challenge up for our kids

the_af 4y ago

Wow. At age 3 some children cannot fully verbalize what they want or need, and some still are not potty trained. I'm ready to accept some 3 year olds can do this, but I think it's unreasonable to expect most children at age 3 to be able to go to the supermarket to buy groceries and fix their own food...

bombcar 4y ago
Depending on what you define "fix your own food" as, most 3 year olds will be able to do something akin to it; if permitted. Our one year old could walk to the kitchen and extract things from the fridge, though she would have difficulty opening some of them.
- the_af 4y ago
  My 3 year old cannot open the fridge, she doesn't have the strength/dexterity. She cannot open lids either. She cannot fix any kind of meal without making a mess. With play-doh she pretends to make meals and definitely makes a mess (and enjoys herself tremendously in the process). She absolutely cannot go to the supermarket to buy anything, and she cannot cross the street either. A 3 year old doing all those things... I'm willing to believe some can, but it's definitely not the norm, and not because we don't let them. They just can't.
  - RalfWausE 4y ago
    I think this is more of a "you have to" thing: I vividly remember many 3 - 4 year olds on the vietnamese side of my family being MUCH more ahead of the ones from the german side... i would think it could be that we in the west put too little challenge up for our kids