Kids Say the Darndest Things!

By Dave Sevick.

Some of us are old enough to remember Art Linkletter’s, “Kids Say the Darndest Things,”  the classic TV show from the 50s and 60s (and 90s, when Bill Cosby recreated it) where the legendary talk show host featured clips of children offering their perspective and insight into some of life’s most interesting situations as well as their own answers to the some of the simplest questions.

The show offered us a peek into just how the mind of a child works and, at the same time, provided us with incredible humor.  So we thought we’d recreate some of those moments by asking children being served at Tennyson Center for Children (TCC) to give us their thoughts on certain topics as well as their own answers to a variety of questions.  But in addition to providing us with some very humorous answers, these kids also humbled us with some of their responses.  They reminded us of how much “baggage” they have had to carry and how they’re coping as they move forward on the path to healing.  In fact, the results were so powerful that we decided to follow this theme in the upcoming 2013 Tennyson Center for Children pictorial calendar.  But don’t worry.  This article won’t spoil anything for you.  We’re saving some great quotes for the calendar.

We started by asking kids what makes them happy.  Emma, an eight year-old in Tennyson’s day treatment/education program, gave us an answer which many of us can relate to by saying, “My dog Ginger.”  Eleven year-old Tyler said, “My new foster family.” And not surprisingly, Micha, age seven, shouted out, “Ice Cream!”

Next question, but this time a bit more thought-provoking. “If you could be President for one day, what would you do?”  The answers ranged from the silly to the profound.  “I’d make it so kids didn’t have to go to school!” was the response from ten year-old Kyle while Maggie, who is also ten, said, “I’d make things less expensive.  My mom works hard but can’t afford a lot of the things she really wants.”  But perhaps the most sobering response came from Cody, a sharp nine year-old whose father has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan. “I’d make sure there weren’t any more wars.”

Then we asked a question about an even higher authority than the President with the question, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?” Marcus, a future archaeologist with a love of dinosaurs, said with excitement, ‘I’d ask what REALLY happened to the dinosaurs to make them disappear from the planet!”  Desiree, who is ten (but seems to think like a 40 year-old), asked, “Why are there so many different religions and how do we know which one is the right one?”  Eight year-old Jeremy’s answer was a bit more sobering.  “I’d ask why He lets people hurt kids.”

We covered a variety of topics, including Santa, the Easter Bunny, New Year’s resolutions, families and favorite pastimes.  When asked, “If you could do anything you wanted for one hour, what would it be?” six year-old Ethan scratched his head for a moment before shouting, “Oh, I know, I know!!! I’d fly into space!”  Similarly, young Becca said, “I’d go to the moon!”  We’re thinking she might be able to hitch a ride with Ethan.

But ten year-old Nathaniel obviously thinks things through from all sides with questions such as this, which was evident when he responded with, “That depends.  Is this something I could get in trouble for doing?”

No conversation involving questions to children would be complete without the classic, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Again, we got a wide range of answers.  Second-grader Nicholas told us, “I wanna be a teacher because without teachers, we’d all be really dumb!”  Several kids said they wanted to play professional sports, while a few others have career aspirations for the silver screen.  One even told us, “I want to be the next Santa Claus. I mean, someone has to take over when he retires!”  But young seven year-old Ben doesn’t seem to be very picky even though it appears he has his sights set high.  “I don’t know what I’ll do, but I know I’m gonna be REALLY rich!”

Our favorite reply came from a child who reminded us of the impact we have with the work we do to help get these kids back on track.  Diego, a deep-thinking nine year-old, told us, “I want to be a counselor or a therapist who helps kids like me who have had bad things happen to them.” 

 ©2012 Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home.