I'm pretty sure it's what Piaget would do

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There’s very little my five-year-old can do that crosses my line of acceptable age-appropriate behavior. I’m waist-deep in kids his age all day every day, so I get how they tick. For instance, I understand that kids come equipped with an internal source of endlessly renewable energy. They must be allowed frequent opportunities to release this effervescence lest it bottle up and explode. Their curiosity runs much the same way. If they see something sparkly or slimy, they simply don’t have the capacity to ignore it. Nor should they.

Like that time when he was two and we were baking together and I left the room for just a minute to answer the phone. A minute. When I got back, I found this . . .

Obviously my reaction was to be delighted! How funny is that that he would slather himself from head to toe with butter? And even if I hadn’t seen the humor, I certainly couldn’t fault him. I’m the adult who left him alone with something slimy.

Kids experience the world through their senses in a much purer way than most of us do. It’s how they learn, and how they grow. And limitless freedom to explore to his heart’s content is a beautiful, natural gift I choose to give my child. It’s a little thing I like to call love.

But if the little fucker jumps in one more mud puddle without taking his shoes off first, so help me, Mommy's gon cap his ass.

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