“No parenting class would have ever prepared me for having my kid ask me why we don’t need artificial oxygen storage.”
No, but a grade school science class would have…
Yeah this is mindboggling. It wouldn’t have ever crossed her mind to tell her kid that they don’t need oxygen canisters on this planet? I mean, what the dad said is good, as it opened the door to some more learning… but wow.
Never underestimate just how clueless the general population is about how the world works. More than you’d expect would prove to not really grasp even the most basic mechanisms of their environment.
People turn to religion for a reason.
To the majority of people, understanding the world beyond “inexplicable god magic” is difficult to learn good-for-nothing trivia unless it’s needed for a good grade and maybe a job if you’re cut out for it. Only the parts specific to surviving in the wild get a different treatment.
Even the non-religious seem to make a habit of thinking like this. The kind of “not a Christian” alcoholic that is completely disinterested in the actual philosophies that allowed for a world where open disbelief is safe, and vocally in favor of “rights” of some sort for currently relevant minorities, with maybe a rare acknowledgement of some surface-level misunderstanding of humanitarian ethics.
It’s surprised me once I got out of school and uni how little people know. But what really blew my mind is just how little they actually care.
Like someone will say they don’t know how something works, I’ll explain and they will stare at me blankly and I really realise they didn’t want me to explain and they were actually happy not knowing. Whereas I will look at something, whether it’s a kettle or pasteurisation or grass and wonder how it works. But for people actually to prefer not to know and live in ignorance really messed with me for a while.
I’ve largely given up now. My boss said he was getting all the heating changed in his house to have electric. I asked why he doesn’t get a heat pump and he told me it’s because they don’t work they just blow air our like a fan so it’s colder than an electric radiator. I just said okay and moved on.
Yeah. I’ve built an entire library worth of knowledge into my head and a deep love of piecing everything together to extend my understanding of how things are and works… And will take it all to the grave with me cause no one cares and honestly whatever.
People don’t care. The idea of us being an intelligent and exploring species is a mistake from those of us that are applying it to everyone else. The maybe 10% of us are doomed to be at the whims of the other 90% that just doesn’t care or want to hear it.
Right? This seems like a…strange problem to have. “Why don’t we need gas masks when we go outside?” “Why don’t we need to worry about rivers of lava?”
…because those aren’t problems on this planet. Lava stays underground unless there is an active eruption and the air outside isn’t toxic. Pretty simple.
Sounds to me like Dad needs a little credit here.
Even if you arent good at improv “Thats a good question! I’m not sure, we should look that up!” Is an easy go-to.
Then after shower and get into bed we look up todays questions.
Sounds like you need some credit too!
My grandfather would tell stories of how the planet used to be covered in plants and you could breathe the air outside. Back when the sky was blue.
Where is this from ?
It is (I hope) an original. Though the form “my grandfather would tell stories” might be bordering on cliché.
I have a feeling that I read this before somewhere
Especially the “Back when the sky was blue” part
I’d be surprised if I’m the first person to say it. If you find your source though, let me know, would be interested in reading it.
It is (I hope) an original
Haha, that’s a big mood.
First off, weird to point out that they’re “age appropriate”
If your kid reads above the age level and understands it that’s generally a good thing
Number two I don’t get why this is such a weird concept on how to explain things to a child. Seems pretty normal and “age appropriate”
Not only that, it’d be better to ask the kid why oxygen tanks are needed on spacecraft, then ask why we don’t need them here on earth.
It’s a weird post, in general.
Yep. I was reading at a 6th grade level in 1st grade, and had advanced to university level comprehension by 5th grade. WTF was an “age appropriate book?”
I’m pretty sure that those people would have been incensed, if they knew that I chose TLotR as my 1st grade book report. (This was in 1985, so while there was an animated movie, it didn’t cover the entire three books, so I had to read them.)
I assumed age appropriate was regarding content not difficulty. It is still a weird thing to emphasize though.
They undoubtedly wouldn’t approve of the content of some of the books I was reading back then either. I had already learned the extremely broad strokes around sex and reproduction by the first grade. My parents have a farm with livestock. I was also reading computer manuals learning how to be a greyhat, before the term even existed.
It always strikes me regarding the mental gymnastics people engage in regarding consumption of entertainment. Violent video games*, even if it’s cartoon violence, tv and movies are everywhere. But people clutch their pearls if it’s in a book format. The world is ending if it’s sexual. Hell, Utah just banned Judy Blume books.
*I’m not condemning video games, study after study has proven that violence in games doesn’t lead to violent behavior, just that we find violence in games acceptable vs people losing their shit over a girl getting her period in a book for YA’s.
Technically only one Judy Bloom book, but your point still stands and I agree. It’s pretty bizarre.
I’m extremely impressed that you were able to read and understand LotR at 7 years old. i read them at 15 and loved them, but definitely had trouble at the council of the elves etc
Yeah, I was one of those “gifted” kids. I’m not sure that it helped anything other than depression and anxiety, but I’m still here, watching as things get even stupider.
I’m not cynical, you’re being silly.
For me it’s just all the funny words for highly specific descriptors of particular types of terrain. But also, you can somehow still get such a vivid picture and follow the gist, even as you filter through all that, even if you don’t bother to look it up.
“Along the left was an eylet flanked by a hithertop which flattened as they proceeded north through the shallow wolly, which rose into semi-steep clifftons…”
(Yes I made all that up lol)
Somehow even with my ADHD I’m having such a good time with it…because it’s so vivid, like Tolkien was actually there.
i love the extraneous detail SO MUCH… i also have ADHD and wrote stories in that way. you need to see it the way i see it! lol
There’s some old sci fi that I read as a kid that I wouldn’t give to mine at the same age. Too much sexism, racism, incorrect astronomy
With sexism and racism I feel at least that’s a good place to have a conversation with your kid and show them why exactly it is wrong though uk?
So, where do I find this dad, as opposed to, “Dunno, ask yer mom, and fetch me a
bud lightcoors.”?They’re what you call “nerds.”
They make great partners, because their spirits come pre-broken.
And they tell you to get whiskey or rum, not Coors.
Or a Coors. Who cares. It’s alcohol.
Also how many whys does it take to get to the big bang and final we can’t know before popping we need better instruments or math so difficult it’s impossible for even mathematicians to pretend to make sense of besides ‘maybe, the math works anyway.’
I was both of those dads.
“Go get me a beer and let’s figure out the answer to your question!”
Get some perri-air
Isn’t the ocean that produces most oxygen?
Yes, the ocean grass
Plankton
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Never been a big fan of kids, but for some reason this post clicked with me. I think I get it.
You sure about that? Having a kid means that you will have to dedicate your money and energy (working), and you will have to be there with them.
But I hope this doesn’t stops you from being a parent. /lh
Dude… just like… think before you speak to a stranger on the internet. You assume. You assume I’ve never raised a child that wasn’t mine in a relationship that lasted 10 years. You assume I didn’t wake up 30 minutes early every morning to drive my exs’ kid to school for 5 years. You assume I don’t have my nieces and nephews over for sleep overs regularly. Mostly you assume that I don’t take the “financial possibilities” of having a child into consideration. Just like shut the fuck up. I’m sorry, but be quiet. The adults are speaking and you don’t know of what you speak. You spew, you throw up nonsense. Be quiet 🤫
Mostly, mostly you may assume I’m female. I’m a 40 y/o male that aches to have a child to love and raise. I yearn for the day when a child says “I love you dad” to me again. Cause it happened with my exs’ child and it’s like a hit from heroin, instantly addicted but in the best way possible
I wasn’t assuming anything, just saying from what I know, sorry if it sounded harmful.
Why? To deny them bacon and eggs and instead hand them dehydrated bananas on whole grain pancakes?
you seem angry
That was personal
Phytoplanktons be like, what’d he say fuck me for (^_-)
Not on this planet… Yet
You know that lil mf reading the expanse.
