Ongoing exposure to preschoolers is a bit like unexpected exposure to Alzheimers. The expectation for a lot of adults is that somehow the preschoolers will remember this period of their life.
But will they?
Probably not. Ask anyone you know whether they remember when they were 3 or 4.
Does this period give them maybe just an emotional response to various figures in their lives?
Some parents probably hope so. But are they kidding themselves?
Sure, we can all fall into patterns of relating to small children – but just say the pattern was impermanent – suddenly a kid hits his/her 4th birthday and the adult that imposed this pattern changed it overnight. Then what?
I guess there are a bunch of people out there who work with very young abused kids who probably know the answer to some of this.
On the plus side there are probably a whole bunch of adults who remember little of the mistakes made by their learner parents in their early years…
This article filed under the following 'Interest' categories (click category for more) Unanswerable questions
Article posted by @Drivelry on September 2, 2008
Filed under topics (click for more articles on that topic): children, family relationships