Society is WEIRD. You need a degree to practice law or operate on someone. You need a license to own a gun/drive a car. Being a parent?

I must take exception to a small portion of your reply Shuhak. My son knew what "suffice" meant at the age of three. I always talked to him as if he were an adult. I taught him how to read and write so at age 3 he could read and we got him a library card. Every week we went to the library. He loved to read so when he went to school he was an excellent student, eager to learn. I never talked down to him. I started reading Shakespeare sonnets to him when he was six months old. He sat in my lap. I would hold the book at an angle he could see and I would point out the words I was reading. Did he comprehend at that age? Of course not. But it became a pattern to him and slowly by slowly after I taught him the alphabet (upper and lower case) and read to him he began reading to me. He does have a genius IQ so that didn't hurt. But the point is that EVERY PARENT who gives a dam* can teach his/her child to read before attending school. That will give the child a love of learning. But parents are too lazy and selfish. They leave the educating to teachers who get the kids at age 6 by which time the brain is practically formed and rigid. I think we parents expose our children to things we want them to embrace. For me it was easy. I wanted him to love to learn as I did. We used to meander around the campus  of a local college picking up a leaf or a stone as a memento to take home. We'd go into empty college classrooms to absorb the ambience. Now how did that affect my child? He is chair of his department at the University of Hawaii on Oahu. Did how I purposefully raise him cause that? Maybe. He is very happy in his chosen profession. How much was due to him and  how much was due to me? I have no idea but it doesn't matter. Just sharing that with you because I think we write kids off as being "too young" to learn when in fact they aren't. It's just that we are too dam* lazy to bother with them. Thank you for your reply! :) This post was edited by RosieG at May 22, 2019 10:11 AM MDT

I didn't mean everyone did this.  Just that while working I observed some "parents" doing this.  My nieces both treated their infants as if they had a college degree.  Not as in teaching them, but in communicating with them.  If a little baby drops its bottle, you dont stand there and give a 30 minute dissertation on gravitational forces, mucilaginous pathogens, and the proper metacarpal joint position for maximum retention of a polyethylene receptacle.  You pick it up and say, "don't throw your bottle".  

My mom did the same things you did with us (only it wasn't Shakespeare, it was Dr. Seuss).  I fully agree that parent should teach AND interact with their children.  No waiting until they "figure it out for themselves".  No having others (ie. teachers) do it for them.  They "made" them so they need to take responsibility for them.

Quote: For 30 years I watched people command their newborn as if it were a dog.  

This annoys me soooooo much, when I see it.
I have a friend whose family constantly demands a 3-year-old to do "tricks" to entertain them.
I love it when she obviously has enough, and just ignores them.  I even think she knows how I feel, since she'll give me a look that appears to say "Can you believe these idiots" before she just ignores them and does her own thing.  LOL