LogFAQs > #921742326

This topic title and OP are just another example among many where people ignore, forget, or retcon what being a kid is like.

We see it all the time among all sorts of people. As most people grow older, they lose touch with, lets just call it, their "childhood." I don't mean things like jobs or such either. I mean they literally just forget more and more about what its like to be young until they only see childhood as being a stupid little know-nothing brat who is ignorant of everything that actually matters.

This sort of concept is why many parents get so incredibly amazed every time their kids prove that they are NOT in fact idiots, and then proceed to self-support an opinion that their kid is the one rare one that is actually smart. No, that is not how it works. People like that are just confusing "dumb" with "naive." Very big difference between the two, actually.

That little rant aside, what was I actually going to comment on originally?

Ah, yes. In this case, its a little bit of the reverse. Someone looks at the word "dating" and just associates all the older versions of dating with it, and imaging two small children doing those things instead.

A better term would generally be "play dating" when talking about kids who do things that the kids themselves call "dating." After all, they are naive. They have witnessed and know that older people who are boy and girl may go out together for fun of some sort. But obviously, societal concerns and cultural whatnot mean that nothing else is told to them, so they naturally will put the 2 and 2 they DO have together to figure that a date involves doing things that are fun. And to insert things that THEY find fun into that interpretation. They will even see that their deduction is supported, as parents or other older people will typically tell them of their own dates while only mentioning the part of it that IS "normal fun," like meeting each other at a restaurant, and seeing a movie or going skating or whatever else they happened to do.

Ok, I'd best wind down or I'll just go back into rant mode again, but you get the point I am making about what I think of children. Children are not stupid. They are naive. And naive is a lot different from stupid.
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