Kids are not boring for two reasons

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None of them are boring. (Parenting reality moment: Spending a lot of time with little kids can be excruciatingly boring, especially if you can’t muster enthusiasm for their weird obsessions. But their thoughts, their expressions, their points of view, their wild passions — these are not boring people. They care bizarrely deeply about things. They don’t know that it isn’t okay to be who they are. Now, the process of teaching kids how to be good members of our culture is a good thing. Potty training and learning to eat without throwing your food are wonderful developments for everyone. But the insidious messages always ride alongside.


Those don’t really go together.” “I’m philippines photo editor sure you don’t really mean that word.” “Being an artist (writer, cowboy, ballerina, musician, astronaut) is really hard. When you get bigger, you’ll choose a real job.” “Let’s stay on this side, okay?” “We don’t play with children like that.” “We don’t spend time with people like that.” “We don’t talk about things like that.” Parents do it, teachers do it, and maybe more than anyone else, other kids do it. We knock all of the weird edges off one another. So we make ourselves palatable and convenient. Girls are pretty and boys are tough. And no one likes the weird kid who reads too much and spends all that time by herself.



A word or two about honesty and outrageousness There have always been some who try to create success by making themselves highly, visibly obnoxious. The professional troll, the shock jock, the provocateur. It’s pretty easy to infuriate people in order to get their attention. Easier than ever, in fact. But mistreating other people to get attention isn’t “authenticity.” It’s just bullying. And the success it leads to is short-lived and shallow, if it comes at all. Which it probably won’t, because paying attention to you isn’t the same thing as trusting you. Trust me, if you’re at all honest, you will offend people. You don’t need to go looking for ways to be offensive.