“And then all the noise.
All the noise, noise, noise, NOISE!
They’ll bang on tong-tinglers,
blow their foo-flounders,
they’ll crash on jang-jinglers,
and bounce on boing-bounders!”
Grinch, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Young children learn through self-directed play and discovery.
Those activities are frequently messy, unrestrained, and … LOUD.
Children find joy in talking, singing, dancing, and doing. They need a bit of loud. Sadly, adults and their desires for quiet can cause the littles in our lives to struggle—too often and in too many places. What an awful thing to do to young children.
Play and exploration are naturally at the core of what children do; yet in many settings where young children ought to be nurtured and celebrated (e.g., homes, preschools, neighborhood places and spaces, community events), children have fewer opportunities to fulfill their natural instincts to play and be loud.
As children’s preferences and predispositions continue to be ignored, the result is an absence of a freedom to learn and grow in environments unencumbered by pressure and [often incorrect] assumptions from adults. What a tedious and painful approach to childhood. Today young children are forced to experience:
- Product-oriented activities
- Rule-specific expectations
- Fewer open-ended toys
- A focus on academics
- Adult-driven experiences
- Unnatural amounts of time-scheduled and managed events
- Overwhelmingly quiet environments
Certainly there are times and places where quiet is necessary. And as young children age, they developmentally understand that reality. In the meantime, forcing a little one into such situations is not only inappropriate, it’s cruel and punishing.
This holiday, give yourself and the young children in your life the gift of accepting that quiet isn’t necessarily a sign that “things” are going well. On the contrary, it could be telling us that we are doing something very wrong. If only we could hear it.
