Despite the 15+ year age gap, toddlers and college students are more similar than you think. After being a toddler for a few years, we go through adolescence and the teenage years and eventually find ourselves as young adults with these things called ‘responsibilities.’ In other words, we are college kids. Although we are older and wiser, college does something to us that makes us revert back to our 4-year-old self.
1. Remember how nap time was the best part of kindergarten? Well, that’s still true. Naps are essential and can almost be taken on command. If we miss our daily nap, we will not be happy and may even throw child-like fits.
2. Speaking of sleep, let’s talk about attire. Little kids want to wear their pajamas all day every day (at least I did). They love their cute princess or superhero pajamas and want to show them off to the world. It’s totally socially acceptable to see a young child out in public sporting their incredibly comfortable and practical PJs. However, once we go to college, our pajamas are disguised as Nike shorts or sweatpants and t-shirts, so no one knows if you are actually wearing pajamas or gym clothes.
3. It’s impossible to have too many snacks. We used to love snacking on Goldfish, cereal, fruit snacks, and animal crackers at recess. I guess some things never change - except now we have to eat as we awkwardly speed walk to our next class. And our moms don’t pay for our snacks anymore. And we have to worry about the Freshman 15. Nonetheless, you can never have enough snacks - no matter how many you have stashed away in your dorm.
4. Puppies and animals are incredibly exciting. Like jumping-up-and-down-exciting. As a child, we went to petting zoos and loved petting and cuddling the baby animals. Now, we experience pure joy when we see a dog. We want nothing more than to pet the dog and make it love us.
5. One of the greatest things about little kids is their honesty. You can always count on one of those little rascals to give you their honest opinion, whether you want it or not. Having a bad hair day? They'll tell you. Have bags under your eyes from lack of sleep? They'll make sure to point it out. We tend to do the same thing, but we show a little more sympathy. It could be because we are so tired, or it could be because we just don’t care anymore. If you want to know something, we’ll tell you. The only thing that separates us from little kids is that we may (or may not) try to sugarcoat what we’re saying, because we now have an understanding of other people’s emotions.
6. Both toddlers and college kids have a little bit of schooling and a lot of fun. Toddlers go to school for a couple of hours to learn, finger paint, take naps, and play with friends, and then they go home and repeat everything (minus the school). We basically do the same thing: we go to school for a couple of hours a day and then have the rest of the day to do whatever we want. It’s awesome.
