Some of the most honest feedback you’ll get will come from a ten-year-old. Listen.

Younger kids have not yet learned which observations are impolite, so they say the thing adults think and swallow. That makes them accidental mirrors, and the comment lands harder for being delivered without any strategy. They are not always right, but they are rarely managing you. Nobody in your life has less reason to flatter.

Next time a younger cousin or sibling says something about you that stings a little, do not laugh it off straight away. Ask what they meant and let the answer be simple. If an adult has hinted at the same thing more politely, you have now heard it twice.