What’s an example of something you should wait to introduce to kids?

That’s a tough one. Different children have different capacities and abilities to understand. As a child, I was often allowed to be with adults discussing things my cousins had no clue about. In a school setting, my own, personal belief is we need to teach reading and numbers (simple math) and make information available to students to choose what they want to learn.

@YARNLADY I guess I mean expectations on children or teaching subjects that can’t be adjusted depending on the child’s maturity. A parent can gauge if a child is ready for something, but a teacher who has a requirement to teach the whole class something; all children in the class are going to be subject to sitting through the lesson. There can be some flexibility in a formal school situation, but there is also a certain amount of rigidity.

A parent situation can fit the question too. Like a parent who insists a child drink with a glass when they keep dropping the glass and really needs a few more months with a sippy cup.

How to pick a lock.

How to make meth.

How to make a molotov cocktail.

Robocop. You should wait until they are at least 6.

As was said, if varies from child to child. However, I find there are two things that children crave, even though they might squawk for show. Rules and challenges. They need to know what the rules are upfront. Doing homework in elementary school is something that should be enforced. If there is homework, they need to do it for their class. Additionally, they will have homework throughout their school career so they might as well learn that is something that is not optional.

As for when to introduce tougher topics into their lives, as with all things, you start with the very basics. Slavery was mentioned. When you first talk about the Civil War, you need to bring slavery into the picture. It is pertinent and needs to be discussed. You don’t have to go into political rhetoric or things like that, just the basics. It is those basics that later classes can build on.

As for giving a child responsibility, I think the sooner the better. They learn how to do a task and get a sense of accomplishment when it is done correctly. I was mowing the lawn at about age 10, babysitting at age 11, helping mom cook from about age 8, complete with washing dishes. Giving responsibility is not passing off work to the kids for free labor. It is to help them learn how to do things and why it is important. This requires, from a parent, the patience to teach the child, the ability to correct poor performance without degrading the child, and the ability to let the child fail on their own, offering help only when it is asked.

How about waiting to introduce kids to iPads and smartphones and social media? I think I’d rather they learn to pick a lock than be “kidfluencers”. The amount of toddlers I’ve seen who just stare at iPads for hours with dead eyes tells me there may be a bit more issue with kids getting addicted to technology at a young age than the horror of a 12-year-old reading a novel with a gay main character.

In a school setting, you are going to have to go with an average level of “readiness”; you won’t be able to tailor it individually to every child; that’s how school works. Sex ed is first taught around the age most kids begin puberty, 10–12 or so. Some kids were like me and didn’t really start puberty until they were 14–15. It didn’t mean I was wronged in some way by learning it with all my peers at a younger age. I don’t think it’s particularly important to shield kids from reality—just make sure that introducing them to it is done tactfully and at an age when they can understand it. Kids are often more precocious or adept than they’re given credit for.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little responsibility either, whether it’s homework or housework. (And no, I’m not talking about the current efforts to relax child labor laws so that migrant kids can work in meatpacking plants). Just make sure they’re not overwhelmed or stressed out (they’ll have plenty of time to do that as adults)—let them be free and be kids sometimes too.

@Demosthenes You are right, technology brings issues. I know at one point my kids had a Playstation at home and got hooked on it. That was all they wanted to do. I had to step in to break it off once in a while. Thankfully they hit a point where they were bored and wanted to do other things. They asked what I did when I was a kid so I told them that we didn’t have computers, video games, and TV was only 3 channels. So we went to friends houses (or had them over), went on bike rides, hiked in the woods, built forts, played ball, played board games…did whatever seemed like fun. By the end of that summer they were going on 10 mile bike rides, playing basketball and football, generally discovering how to use their brains instead of letting them get drained. But I got lucky, I think, that they identified the issue.

Juggling knives and sword swallowing both seem like activates pursued after a few more trips around the sun. Also I agree with restricting screen time, unless it’s reading an ebook or something.

To offer an unsolicited answer to the opposite of your question: I think kids should learn to try new things (such as food), read as much and as often as possible, and get in the habit of doing chores like cleaning their own rooms.

@seawulf575 not to mention that when we were growing up, most of our households only had one or two TVs, so the adults generally got to choose what was being watched, which might or might not have been something we were interested in. I don’t even think kids should have TVs in their bedrooms. I just don’t think it’s necessary and it makes it too easy for them to stay up later than they should.

@Demosthenes even before the advent of iPhones and tablets, etc, they had discovered that kids watching too much TV shortens their attention span and also definitely hurts their imagination. When you read a book, you have to think about, whether consciously or not, what you think is going to happen next. You have to picture what the characters might look like. A lot of that goes by the wayside when you are talking about watching TV or something similar. And with shorter chunks of either TV shows or YouTube videos, it has definitely been found to affect attention span.

Republicans, haters, and priests / ministers

Religion – Just don’t. Let them choose as adults instead of indoctrinating them as children.

Heterosexuality indoctrination – children should not see any images or references to heterosexuality. No princess movies, no cartoons with couples, no knowledge of marriage, or childbearing, etc. That’s how you turn kids into heterosexuals.