We didn't have much in the way of snow this winter, but 3 or 4 days before it did snow Owen told me it was going to. I discounted it because the sky was clear, it was to warm for it to stick, and I had heard no mention of it on the weather report. Also, if I'm to be honest, he is only 4 and I assumed he just wanted it to snow. Owen was right though, we got some snow. Owen had probably caught a bit of a report I missed or heard something from his friends or teachers. At any rate he knew something I didn't and I discounted it because he is a kid.
When I was a child we were learning about resting heart rates from our PE teacher in elementary school. I don't remember what grade I was in or what my heart rate was before and after activity, I just remember it was the highest in the class. I told my father about it and instead of checking or showing concern he expressed frustration with my PE teacher and told me that my PE teacher wasn't a doctor and wasn't qualified to be teaching us about such things.
Now that I am an adult I know that you don't need to be a doctor or have a medical degree to understand such a basic indicator of our overall health. I suffer from tachycardia and from other heart related issues that are being treated properly, but the tachycardia that my father didn't want to hear about from a child or a teacher could have been addressed years ago.
Regardless of the topic, be it weather, health or anything in between we should at the very least try to listen to and understand our children without discounting what they say based solely on their age. Sometimes children are asking questions that need to be asked that adults don't consider. Children have a unique perspective that can be very useful in addressing a wide variety of issues.
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