I’m starting to reconnect with some of my old friends from high school but they have a 5-year-old now and I want to make a good impression but I don’t really know how to interact with children. Do I just like ask them what their favorite Disney movie is or something?
I hated it when adults would crouch to talk to me, but I don’t know how common that is.
I usually sit on the floor
If some giant towering over me would sudddenly get right in my face not respecting my personal space talking in a cutesy voice I would hate it too. Maybe the giant has bad breath and/or is asking me inappropiate questions like if I have a girlfriend yet or to come and hug him. I would be terrified.
Getting down to eye level to talk to small children is the norm in early childhood education. While getting my Montessori training, we had a special portion of the program learning how to appropiately adress children in a respectful way to invite them and engage in x or y activity. Even where we had to sit to teach a lesson depending if the child is left or right handed. Small details are very very important.
My mom was a Montessori teacher, maybe that’s why it happened so much 😂
It always felt like we were going to have a very serious conversation and it felt condescending somehow (I now recognize that, at the time I just felt annoyed). I had unmanaged ADHD and liked to wander off, so perhaps I was having those conversations way more often, but I never liked it.
Lol yes to the “very serious conversation” bit, my kid would geta stern look at times and I always thought it was because for them, I was on “teacher” mode, very serious.