Pet Please #134: Grown-Up Gestures Made by Little Kids

I love when kids act like miniature adults.

Last night I hosted a game night, and a friend attended with his wife and daughter, who is almost 3. She was adorable–very talkative and interactive, not shy at all in the presence of 8 adult strangers.

At one point I finished a game and heard that the little girl was playing a different game in the living room (a kids game that’s also fun for adults called Castle Knights). She and my friend were on the couch, and as I approached, I pulled up a chair to sit down.

Before I could, the little girl scooted over, patted the cushion next to her, and said, “You can sit right here.”

It’s the motion of her patting the cushion that really makes me smile. I guess it’s not necessarily a grow-up gesture, but it’s certainly a well informed one. It’s a physical representation of her words, and it offers a very specific invitation: to sit down right here.

Perhaps it’s just that I don’t spend much time around kids. Have you experienced these types of grown-up gestures from the kids in your life?

8 thoughts on “Pet Please #134: Grown-Up Gestures Made by Little Kids”

  1. Ha! That’s awesome. I love when little kids do adult things. I think that’s why I got such a kick out of the picture of Ben, the washed up lounge singer baby, from the kids vs. pets contest a few years back.
    I’m always taken aback when a small child says words that are clearly adult words and uses them correctly. The other day Ella (who is 1, for those of you who don’t know her) said, “There’s a shadow looming in the corner.” I had to laugh.

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  2. 1. When Charlotte was a baby, I’d hold her so she could rest her head on my shoulder and I’d pat her on the back gently (like any mom would). One day when she was a little older (maybe a year old), I was holding her the same way and we were kind of swaying back and forth in the kitchen. I felt her little hand start patting me on the back just like I did to her. Even though I was in a perfectly fine mood, it was so sweet that she was trying to soothe me the same way I soothed her for all those months. I almost started to cry right there!

    2. When she was about 2-3 years old, she was on a kick where every time you’d tell her that it was almost time for bed, or almost time to leave the park or whatever, she would tap a non-existent watch on her arm and say in a very business-like tone, “20 more minutes, ok? 20 minutes.” Everything was 20 minutes, no matter what it was. She had no concept of time at that age, but I guess she thought it was a grown-up thing to say!

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  3. Jamey,

    Great post! My daughter, who is now 17, is an only child, and as such, spent many holidays and events as the only young one in the room among many adults. She’s got a great sense of humor, even though she can prove quite sarcastic at times (yes, that comes from me…it’s from growing up in Philly). When she was as young as 2 or 3, she would correct people’s assumptions after they said something, by starting her comment with “Actually…” That always made me laugh.

    One story I’ll share with you really underscores why she’ll pursue a career in acting. She was maybe four years old at the time and we had friends over to the house around the holidays. The rule in the house was she could always one or two M&Ms but no more. She walked over to the table where four of us (all adults) were sitting and talking to one another. I looked at her and saw the tell-tale signs of red and green marks around her mouth (it was Christmas time so we had the seasonal candy). I asked, “Did you have more than one M&M?” Kat looked at every person a the table and then back to me. She grabbed her leg, formed real tears, and limped over to me saying, “My leg hurts” and proceeded to climb onto my lap, Clever beyond her years this one…hahahaha!

    Cheers,
    Joe

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