About 10 years ago, a mother with a one-year-old and a newborn baby asked if I wanted to help watch her oldest. I accepted and I remember that first day of standing awkwardly in front of the kid who acted shyly and wanted to play in her outdoor playhouse. Little did I know that encounter would change my life forever.
Since then, they had four more kids -- a total of six. As time passed, they moved away a few times, I moved away a few times, and we haven’t had the opportunity to spend as much time together, but they have always held a special place in my heart.
Over the years, I’ve found myself working with more kids, particularly in church settings, and I generally work with two-year-olds. From my time of working with kids and growing in my love for them, I’ve come to realize these eight reasons of why kids are the best.
1. They’re not judgmental
They have such a high capacity of loving you and loving others. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been, or what you look like, kids will see past what’s on the outside, love you for who you are and ask you to play with them. It’s my favorite quality in kids and something that’s best to hold onto while you can. When you get older, you start to judge others like everyone else and your whole mindset changes, but how accepting kids are is very special.
2. They ask you to read them stories
I don’t know. There’s just something special about when a two-year-old walks up to you with a book in their hand and sits in your lap so you can read to them. And when they fall asleep in your arms, it’s pretty adorable.
3. Their innocence
When you see people in the world out there hating, killing and doing the unthinkable and just dealing with adult life, it’s refreshing to just play with a child who simply finds joy in simple crafts, pretending to make meals of strange food combinations and going down the slide. At least for a while you get to enjoy the simple things in life.
They’re not stressing out about what’s going to happen in the next five years, they don’t care what other people think of them and they don’t spend excessive amounts of time in front of the mirror. They’re just real, genuine people who are only concerned about being silly, having fun and taking life one day at a time.
4. They make you laugh doing the silliest things
Sometimes they say something sassy that you weren’t expecting. Sometimes they’re playing with Legos and randomly singing their favorite song off key. Or they’re making faces and noises to make everyone around them laugh. But whatever they do, you can’t help but smile.
5. Their imagination
For a lot of people, myself included, you lose a lot of your imagination when you grow up, but it’s remarkable to see the things kids can just come up with and how real it is to them.
6. They bring out your creativity
When you’re playing with kids, you end up coming up with random little games to keep them entertained. Sometimes it’s using blankets to roll them into a “taco,” and other times it’s a revamped version of tag. Or they come up with games themselves. And for me, personally, working with those six kids brought out a part of my personality that no one knew existed at that time in my life.
7. You get to see them grow up and develop their own personalities
This is bittersweet because they won’t be kids forever, but it’s always a blessing to see them grow throughout life. It can be really cool seeing an admirable quality or gift in a child and seeing that develop into something even deeper over the years.
8. They change your life
When you really get to know them, they become your closest friends. And when a kid becomes a part of your life, you never forget them.
The first child I ever really watched and really connected with sparked my love for kids. I got to know her when she was one and when she was nine, she wrote me the most thoughtful letter and secretly slipped it into my purse before I left. It said that she missed me, mentioned how I’ve been with her for so many years and then signed off as my “faithful friend.” I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. I may have impacted her life in some way, but she’s had a huge impact on mine.
When you come to love kids, the hardships become worth it. Not every day is perfect, but I came to love being with them so much I didn’t really care about the money; I just loved having the opportunity to spend time with them. Kids are special, and I can’t imagine how my life would have been if that mother never came up to me that day and asked me to watch that one-year-old girl.
