Children really do have the funniest way of looking at the world. My niece, who was six at the time, once looked at me very seriously after I said she was growing up so fast. She told me, “That’s because I drink milk every day. You should try it, maybe you’ll get taller too.” I couldn’t stop laughing.

My four-year-old nephew once helped me bake cookies. I asked if he wanted to stir the batter, and without hesitation he said, “No, that’s your job. My job is eating.” He sat at the table watching me the whole time, waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven.

A friend’s little girl, about seven, was asked during dinner what she wanted to be when she grew up. Everyone expected answers like “a teacher” or “a doctor,” but she calmly replied, “Rich. Because then I can just hire people to decide the rest.” The table burst into laughter.

And my five-year-old cousin once argued with his mom about eating vegetables. She told him he had to finish them before dessert, and he looked at her with complete seriousness and said, “If dessert is so good, why don’t we eat that first and save the vegetables for later?” It was hard to argue with that logic.