The most important voice your child will ever hear is their own. Not yours or their teacher’s. Not their friend’s or YouTube’s voice or TikTok’s or AI.
Their own.
It’s their weird little voice that says, “What would happen if...” or “I think there’s another way.” It’s the voice of intuition and curiosity, of imagination and courage.
As parents, sometimes this is the voice we mistakenly teach our children to not listen to. It’s also the voice we spend much of our adult lives ignoring.
Today’s children have access to more information than any generation in history. They can ask a screen almost any question and get multiple answers in seconds. Facts and news and slop are everywhere. Opinions are endless and the advice never stops.
But information isn’t wisdom.
Knowing a million facts doesn’t teach a child how to trust themselves. It doesn’t help them know when something is beautiful, or kind, or true. It doesn’t teach them how to stand up for someone who is different. It doesn’t help them make art, fall in love, fail beautifully, or decide what kind of person they want to become.
Wisdom is different.
Wisdom comes from paying attention. It comes from being bored. It comes from asking questions a search engine can’t answer and trying something because it feels right. Wisdom comes from listening to that strange little tug inside that says, “This way…”. Children are born with that and don’t need us to install it. They need us to protect it.
Instead of giving children all the answers, what if we celebrated their curiosity and praised original thinking instead of “right” answers?
What if we reminded children that being wonderfully weird isn’t something to outgrow—but it’s their source and greatest gift. The world doesn’t need more people who know all the answers, it needs individuals who can listen to themselves and their imagination. Our job isn’t to raise children who can repeat what they’ve heard, it’s to raise humans who trust their voice enough to create something new with it.
Maybe our greatest job isn’t teaching children what to think, but helping them remember that the wisdom they need is already inside them.
My “Wonder Full” series of prints was created to remind children—and the very cool adults raising them—of truths that are easy to forget. Bravery is a choice. Everythingisfigureoutable. Your weirdness is a gift. And, most important: trust the voice that’s been with you from the beginning.
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