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the number of people who do not understand that the best way to respond to kids outside of emergencies is to talk to them like they're humans with a brain and critical thinking skills and empathy is shocking
i spent middle school thru college babysitting and wrangling small children who wildly outnumbered me and i got all of them to genuinely like me as an authority figure cos i didn't yell at them for every little thing
i'm not trying to parent shame or babysitter shame or anything here, i just. i genuinely don't think i'm doing anything special here but *consistently* i get people telling me i'm *amazing* with their kids, they're *shocked* how good i am with children, and like. i talk to 'em, that's all.
also: humoring their ideas and being game for shit
look, if a 6-year-old wants to make homemade peach juice and you're just chilling at home with no plans for you or the peaches, why the fuck don't you help her figure out if you can squish a peach sufficiently to get peach juice? she had the idea and approached you with it and y'all weren't doing anything for the next couple hours anyway. go for it.
the number of people who are shocked that i can control a mass of hyperactive sugar fiends by myself just by being willing to talk to them, explain my decisions/requests/reasons for things, and to go along with their (reasonable, safe, and feasible) ideas is just mind-boggling. am i the only babysitter or older relative to figure this out?