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What breaks in a toddler's brain when they mess up a task a little bit so they purposefully mess up the rest of the task? (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/parenting

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So I’m thinking along the lines of this (volume warning)

But my two year old just did the same thing while “helping” to feed the dogs. She spilled a few pieces, looked at the mess, and then dumped out the rest of the cup. She exclaimed, “I make a mess” then picked up the pieces, put them back in the cup, and successfully poured it into the dog’s bowl. What breaks in their brain where the task doesn’t go according to plan so they make an even bigger mess?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Okay I have a sudden thought.

You know how sometimes you'll be, say, walking over a bridge, and your brain will say "YEET YOUR PHONE INTO THE RIVER!" And you're like "Fuck no, why would I do that?" and you stick your phone in your pocket and move away from the railing?

Call of the void. I'm convinced that this is your primitive brain's way of reminding you what not to do by creating "dangerous" situations for you to respond to in the appropriate way, because we just don't run into dangerous situations like that very often in modern societies.

Extending from that, I think that there's a time in young children where their brains have advanced to be able to do the "call of the void" thing, maybe triggered by an accident with dog food or a bottle of water, but haven't advanced to where they don't answer that call.

All of the above is constructed out of pure speculation. But it sounds good to me.

[–] dustyData 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's technically called intrusive thoughts. Kids are notoriously bad at impulse control, so this theory has credence.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Yup this sounds like the right answer to me too. Typical intrusive thoughts like we all have, but with no impulse control to stop them from actually doing it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Your brain doesn't need to remind you what's dangerous, your brain is you. By the time your are getting that thought, you already established that it would be wildly stupid to do that. It's more like planning an exit strategy and stay prepared for the worst case (your phone could drop into the river without you yeeting it).

But your theory still might have merit because without any past experiences to judge a situation, how can you know what's good and what's bad?

Another explanation could be that it's easier to restart a sequence of actions than to correct a mistake in the current one and continue. And babies are not very motorically skilled in the first place, so it's even harder for them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

your brain is you.

I reject that on principle.

[–] theluckyone 3 points 5 months ago

I'm with you.

I'm over here giggling at some other dimensional being swearing and pounding on the controls, asking why the stupid wet wear needs to be so damn clunky and exactly who designed the UI?