As someone who has babysat for about five years, I’ve seen that what children have to say can be very interesting, funny, or even make complete sense. They tend to see things differently, shaping their minds and opinions differently than ours. This oftentimes means that the advice that they give is different. This past summer I babysat regularly for three families, was a substitute babysitter for one, and worked in a daycare for about two to three months. This meant that I heard a lot of kids opinions on things, their way of thinking things out, and usually unwanted or already known advice. I decided after having seen so many articles geared towards college freshman with advice on how to make their first year great, what they should know, and what to pack for college- to ask children for advice to give to college freshmen.
I asked five or seven kids I babysit, aged ten and under, to give me advice before I went to college. Most of the advice doesn’t make sense and some of the younger ones didn’t exactly understand what ‘advice’ meant, but they were funny nonetheless. Here are five pieces of advice for college freshmen given by kids.
Author's note: All of the parents gave permission to use their children's names in this article.
Ava, 10: "Ummm, I don’t know! Get the best grades you can? Be nice to your teachers. Get an A++."
Zane, 7: "If a person comes up to you and says mean things to you, you tell them to shut their mouths and leave the school, and if a bully comes up to you and is mean to you then you can tell them to shut their mouths and that you’ll kick their butt and they can leave the school. Also, if a very mean person, meaner than bully, comes up to you, you say, 'you squirt, get out of school, you butt.' And get an A- a minus A."
Madison, 8: "Always remember your time tables! I don’t really remember anything!"
Shelby, 6: "The only thing I want to say is, 'bye.' I don’t have any advice. Actually, I have one thing. Can you take pictures at college? Take pictures."
Reagan, 3: "I only want to say, 'bye' and, 'I miss you.'"
Obviously little Reagan doesn’t understand advice much yet, but she will. These may not be super helpful, but at least they can make you laugh if nothing else. Good luck to freshman everywhere, and to all college students with the upcoming 2016-2017 school year!
