“Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.”

(Muriel Spark, British novelist)

The other day, at my son’s football practice, a car alarm started sounding. While the owner was trying to fix the problem, the adults furrowed their brows and shook their heads at the interruption to the business at hand. The boys, on the other hand, spontaneously turned the alarm into a group dance, alternately crouching and jumping with each beep.

Children instinctively know when to turn play into work and vice versa. They are not weighed down by the shoulds of this world because they often instinctively face challenges with resiliency, confidence, and optimism.

If we could relax, just a little, and let go of the need to always be teaching our children something, we may be able to see them in a different light. The next time you are around a group of children, think about this: children don’t usually hold grudges, they normally tend see the good in people, and they often absorb themselves in things they enjoy.

If we could be secure enough to admit that kids sometimes do life better than we do, we just might learn a few things and enjoy ourselves a bit more along the way.

(This one comes from my wife, Jenny, many years ago—I can tell because A) she’s clearly describing little kids here, not teenagers, and B) we stopped allowing our son to play football a long time ago. Hit me up on our FB page if you’d like to know why.)