A child should not have to become impressive to make an adult stop and listen.

Children learn very quickly what earns attention in a house. If the only reliable route is achievement, a good report, a trophy, a performance, then being ordinary starts to feel like being invisible. The lesson generalizes far past childhood into a habit of earning every bit of care. Plain interest in what a child is thinking, offered on a day with nothing to show, teaches something different.

Ask about something small this week and stay for the answer. Put the phone down for a story that has no point. Let the attention arrive unattached to anything they did.