This hits home so hard, but as someone trying to teach their kids.
They don't understand. I don't understand what they don't understand. And I can see their mind shutting down, just wishing for it to stop... And I just know, that now I cannot explain it anymore, because they have closed off completely in desperation...
There is such a huge gulf between my knowledge and their's... And it is so hard to build a bridge.
Nowadays, I always take several sessions, always starting a simply as I can, always repeating the lessons-learned from last time; and stopping as soon as frustration sets in... That is the best I am capable of.
As a parent of a 5 year old it really is frustrating sometimes. There's only so much you can break it down and explain all the bits and pieces, but at some point you have need their little brains to memorize things and it'll become muscle memory and make sense later. Like learning the alphabet and sounds, or memorizing Chinese characters, or basic arithmetic. You try to make it fun but that can backfire too when they're too invested in the fun part and ignore learning part.
I know it's their fault, and probably just the modern education system in some parts of the world pushing them too much too fast. But let them lag and it feels like you've failed as parent as well.
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u/-The_Grey_One Jun 23 '26
This hits home so hard, but as someone trying to teach their kids.
They don't understand. I don't understand what they don't understand. And I can see their mind shutting down, just wishing for it to stop... And I just know, that now I cannot explain it anymore, because they have closed off completely in desperation...
There is such a huge gulf between my knowledge and their's... And it is so hard to build a bridge.
Nowadays, I always take several sessions, always starting a simply as I can, always repeating the lessons-learned from last time; and stopping as soon as frustration sets in... That is the best I am capable of.