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Kids are "little people" only the in the sense that they are immature examples of H. sapiens. Letting them be kids is very good advice precisely because it does

• nevinera 13y ago
  You are both right and wrong. Children are not identical to adults, and treating them like they should be free to make all of their own decisions at 5 years of age would be negligent. But they are like adults in many ways that we tend to ignore - they may not have a great conception of which things can hurt them how badly, but they have a sense of dignity, and they have a sense of independence. They want to make decisions for themselves, and they need to interact with adults that treat them as a rational peer to whatever degree that is possible. Give them what freedoms you can, and respect them enough to explain the real reasons for the rules you impose. Sometimes you may find that they aren't very good ones at all, when you try to explain them - when that happens, admit that it wasn't a good rule, and work out a better one with them.