Sometimes when people on the Internet are like “ADULTS CAN NEVER INTERACT WITH MINORS IT’S CREEPY” I remember how, at 12, back in 1997, I was on the Witchvox forums with people ranging from me to people in at least their 50s, and no one there was ever a creep to me, no one ever made me feel uncomfortable or asked for my personal info, and when I finally broke down after a particularly brutal day of bullying at school and posted about it they were the first adults I’d ever met in my entire life who told me the bullies were the problem and it was okay to be angry about it.
Kids need to interact with adults who will listen to them.
I was practically raised by sixty year old scientists I’d never met on random science forums. I’d show up and talk about evolution with them for hours. When I got accepted into university, they helped me go through how to find a place to live and the basics of living alone (my family didn’t want me to go to uni so didn’t help with any of this, figuring that if I couldn’t find accommodation I’d have to stay home). You’re supposed to have friends outside your age group; I’d argue that it’s psychologically unhealthy not to. And no, your parents and grandparents don’t count.
It takes a village to raise a child. Not a village of other 6 year olds.
Yeah. In particular, note that the goal here is not to have one person you trust intensely and you have no way of sanity-checking them; the goal is to have a handful of people, who are independent of each other, so that if one of them is making you uncomfortable you can tell someone else “hey this person I know is doing a thing which sorta creeps me out” and get feedback.
In an ideal world, you could rely on your parents to perform that function. We’re not in an ideal world.
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