Crazy 2020 Kids’ Survey
We’ve talked a lot about what a unique and challenging year 2020 has been and how we’ve been concerned about the impact the pandemic has had on children, in particular. Well-aware that macro-level research is already underway, we undertook a thoroughly unscientific nano-survey of our own kids this week.
We started off with an oddball question about who they’d like have join them for Christmas dinner. I thoroughly expected my kids’ to answer “the t.v.” Surprisingly, they named the two adults closest to them.
When interviewed by his sister, my seven year-old responded in a puzzled tone: “An adult? Uh...Mom?” I like to think it meant that his mother is indeed the adult with whom he’d most like to eat Christmas dinner (every year from now to eternity) and I was also proud that he could differentiate human from screen. There is of course the possibility that he was caught off guard and named the adult with the most control over his life, who happened to be filming his response.
My nine year-old daughter looked at the camera and thoughtfully answered, “Dad, because I don’t see him so often.” This kid knows how to gently pack an emotional punch…
Six year-old Asher felt secure enough not to butter up his parents and chose “Pikachu coz I love him. He's cute..” Ah, did you not hear the part where you were asked to name an adult, dear? No, he heard it and even clarified “All Pokemons are adults. Also, Tapu Koko GX coz he has Tapu thunder. And I also like Banette GX coz I like his gold teeth. And also Dragonite coz he's too cute. And I also like Rayquaza, Kyurem EX, Metagross GX, MGengar E,…” Ok, we got it, thanks.
We thoroughly expected to get answers like Minecraft or Among Us in response to the next question, which was: “If you could teach your parents one game this Christmas, what would it be?” But instead, we heard “Double double 7” and twice in a row “Hoogeyball”. We don’t (yet) know much about these games, but have been able to confirm that you don’t play them on screens. All we have to say is, that’s amazing, thank you in person schools with recess and physical education classes!
When we then asked “What did you like most about this year?” Asher said, “playing with my cousin Chloe,” spontaneously naming an upside to his prolonged removal to HK.
To remind me that my seven year-old’s sense of a year is way different from mine, he answered this December question with the figure who left chocolates in his shoes on December 6: “Weihnachtsmann…der Nikolaus?” (Santa Claus…Saint Nicholas?)” Fair enough kid, I’m also confused about who’s who in our family’s transatlantic Christmas tradition in China…
And my daughter, bless her heart, fill her stocking very full, answered “I liked that Mom and Dad made the advent calendars themselves.” Bless you, child.
And finally, the last question, to which we were pretty sure we knew the sad and nasty answer, surprised. “What would be nice to forget about this year?” In his only answer that didn’t end in a rising question tone, the seven year-old answered definitively “the bad dreams.”
The nine year-old, pensive at first, said “All the bad things and bad dreams that happened” and then, as if having vanquished them, or perhaps just happy to have finished the tiresome survey, cheered “The End! Woohoo!”
Asher, meanwhile took the cake for resiliency and present-mindedness, telling his mom: “[my friend] sticking his tongue at me. I feel really angry. I just want to punch him in the face but [my school] doesn't allow it. So I ignore it. And I want to forget about burping, pooping, peeing on the toilet lid!” Amen to that last bit, Asher.
We were surprised how much fun we had with the survey. Mine enjoyed interviewing each other on camera, as if they were on a talk show. Asher reveled in the idea of bringing his Pokémon world to the table and reminded us of the immediate physical memories of his body, which itself stayed virus-free and as such, regardless of his surroundings, recorded much less impact of the virus than did our adult brains. We are aware of how our situation in China differs from most others this year and wonder how answers from elsewhere might sound.
How do you think the kids you know would answer the survey? What would your inner child say about 2020? What would make a memorable ending of 2020?
If you could have Christmas dinner with an adult, who would it be?
If you could teach your parents one game this Christmas, what would it be?
What did you like the most about this year?
What would be nice to forget about this year?
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Thanks, lost boys