Childish vs Childlike

At first it may appear that these two terms are very similar as they deal with children.  But that is not really true, as we use them many times to describe adult behavior.  To be childish has a very negative connotation whereas childlike has a positive connotation.  When I think of childish, I think of regression, selfishness, immature, absorbed in one’s own interests in a harmful way.  On the contrary, when I think of childlike, I think of curiosity, innocence, smiling faces, youth, energy, trust, amiability, playfulness with a sense of experiencing true leisure, exploration, honesty, and love.  The former is more destructive and in opposition to growth and maturity.  The latter is a good quality that we should attempt to nurture throughout our life.

Let’s face it, there is more to this world and life than we will ever know.  When we decide to stop looking at the world around us, exploring and discovering both our inner selves and those around us, we start regressing.  It is all how we look at the world.  When we give up on the world and think it owes us, or we have taken the measure and found it wanting, when we have given up and just want to take what we feel belongs to us, this is childish behavior.  It is in looking at the world as a new but familiar place.  One in which we have not exhausted our search.  Where we wake up thankful for a new day and energetic to find out what we could possibly learn, what we can see, who we will meet, what we can enjoy for the shear joy of experience, that we are able to bask in the ability of being childlike.

As a grandparent I particular enjoy seeing and experiencing things with them.  I watch them grow, encounter, and attempt to categorize all their new experiences.  One trait that stands out is the ability to do a task over and over again.  Children do not get easily bored with some trivial task that we no longer see the novelty of.  Whether that is in a small child dropping an item on the floor repeatedly or in a three-year-old telling you the same thing again and again.  With both, our response is not entirely the same.  For the toddler, eventually we stop giving an item back for them to throw down and in the three-year-old it might be that we no longer respond with the same enthusiasm as we did when they told us the first time.

When we were young, we could not wait to become adults, but in becoming adults, let us not lose the childlike quality that brings joy to our lives and those around us.