Kids can be simply amazing and delightful but they can also be frustrating in the extreme. You buy them a beautifully designed toy that manufacturers and educations have put so much research into. But all that kid wants is to play with a basket of onions. You get all these educational cue cars hoping that your kid is actually Einstein in disguise, but the kid has zero interest. So, here’s what you can do:
It is basic reverse psychology. It works not just on kids but also on adults. You pretend you're not interested in someone – so that they’ll be interested in you!
This commentator explained how this technique is used in behavioural therapy as well.
By pretending to exclude the baby from the activity, the adults managed to pique the child's curiosity and interest.
This is pretty much how it went – explained in just one gif.
Babies tend to be curious about many of the wrong things – like fire and cleaning materials, shelves, drawers and the bathroom. This is a good idea to channel their interest into something that is a lot more constructive.
They thought it is better to talk to and show the child the world around. Sure, that’s good too, but when you're stuck indoors with few ideas, this looks like a good one.
Channelling a baby’s attention into something educational like this can help give the mother some time to herself. She is less worried about the baby getting into trouble while she works from home according to this tweet.
True – babies are cute and they do cute things – like in this video.
This works with adults as well. Many a budding school romance started out with someone pretending not to be interested.
Parents, caregivers or educators who want to gently guide older kids away from time-wasting and towards more creative pursuits have also tried this successfully.
Show them how it’s done. If the adults make it seem like a lot of fun (and it can in fact be fun) kids get interested. Now if only it was possible to make this a part of our school curricula!
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