Dialogue With a Kid

I have worked with kids in some capacity since I was fifteen. Most of that time, my primary focus was with infants between the ages of six weeks and two years, but I’ve had vast experience with older kids all the way to twelve years old, as well.

I am continuing to work and volunteer with kids as I move on to graduate school, and I am currently a preschool aide, which means my focus right now is with four and five-year-olds. In case you have limited experience with preschoolers, this is the age where they say and do some of the wildest things, in all their childhood innocence. In case you need to see some sweetness and innocence in the world, I wanted to share a few of my favorite interactions with some of the kids I’ve worked with over the years.

Me, trying to help a four-year-old get dressed to go outside in January: “You need a hat.”

Four-year-old (very emotional): “No! I don’t want to wear a hat!”

Me: “Your head will get cold.”

Four-year-old: “I don’t have a head!”

While the teacher is helping preschoolers learn the letter M, they are asking the class about words that start with the letter M: “Do you know a word that starts with M?”

Five-year-old: “Yes, mafia.”

The teacher and I exchange looks.

Teacher: “Are you a part of the mafia?”

Five-year-old: “Yeah?”

A six-year-old after I helped him open his jammed locker: “You’re strong!”

Me: “Yes.”

Six-year-old: “But my dad is stronger!”

Me: “I would hope so.”

The six-year-old then repeats this exchange almost daily for the rest of the summer.

Two-year-old, holding hands about six inches apart: “I love you this much!”

Me, teasing: “That’s not very much.”

The two-year-old pauses: “I love you this much.”

Side note (and important information) is that I taught this same two-year-old how to say “I love you” when he was one.

Four-year-old: “When I grow up, I want to be a hairdresser, do nails and be a YouTuber.”

Me: “What should I be when I grow up?”

The four-year-old thinks very hard: “You should stay home… and do nothing… and eat!”

Five-year-old: “And leave the door open so I can visit you!”

Me: “Sounds good, where do I sign up?”

A five-year-old who I’m helping to fix her ponytail: “I wish we had a hairbrush… and the school was a HAIR SALON!”

A four-year-old, after I asked if he knew how to play UNO: “It’s easy! Pizza cake!”

Me: “What?”

Four-year-old: “Pizza cake?”

A five-year-old, when commenting on how heavy a particular object is: “I bet it’s, like, forty feet heavy!”

As you can probably tell from simply the dialogue exchanges in this article, kids are far from boring. Every time you turn around, they do or say something you never expected (which can be both good and bad).

The innocence and the newness of the whole world is refreshing. As an adult, we can forget how strange the norms we exist in are, or that everything in life has to be explained at some point for it to make any sense. Before all that, we have kids who don’t know the ropes yet, who say what they believe is firmly true and boldly tell the truth as they perceive it. We can take a lesson from their confidence and innocence.

I enjoy the kids I currently work with and those I have in the past. I hope these interactions brought you a smile.