If your toddler has spent the last week building tiny houses for bugs or pressing elevator buttons with the intensity of someone defusing a bomb, congratulations: you’re raising a curious kid. And according to new research, that’s something to celebrate, not redirect.
A recent survey of 2,000 parents with children ages 0-6, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Lightbridge Academy, revealed what we’ve all been witnessing at home: today’s youngest kids are endlessly fascinated by the world around them. From rainwater and worms to knights and drums, their interests run the gamut from predictable to delightfully bizarre. One child’s special interest? “Extinct fish.” Another’s? The mechanics of how door stoppers work.
But here’s where it gets real: while 91% of parents say it’s important to encourage their child’s natural curiosity, we’re also saying “be careful” an average of 27 times per day. Add another 25 “don’t touch that” warnings, and it’s clear we’re walking a tightrope between fostering exploration and avoiding a trip to the ER.
The question marathon (and why we’re stumped)
The research found that parents field an average of 46 questions per day. Forty-six. And we don’t have answers 35% of the time, which makes sense when you look at what kids are actually asking: “If time had a smell, what would it smell like?” “How long can a hippo run faster than an elephant?” “Where do dreams go when we wake up?”
Once, when my daughter was five, she piped up from the backseat on our way to ballet, “What if we’re all just tiny LEGO people and there are people in the sky who are playing with us?” Um, excuse me. Did you fish a delicious looking gummy out of my nightstand? Do we need to hit up Taco Bell after class? Because that is some serious divine stoner logic and I’m totally here for it.
Clearly, these aren’t questions you can quickly Google while stirring mac and cheese. They’re the kind of philosophical, scientific, and entirely-out-of-left-field queries that make you wonder if your four-year-old is secretly a grad student in disguise.
Most parents’ first reaction is to wonder where these questions even came from (52%), while others jump in to find answers together (42%) or do some solo research later (27%). And honestly? All of those responses are valid. As we’ve talked about before when discussing how to raise curious kids who question everything, saying “I don’t know, let’s figure it out together” is actually modeling the exact kind of thinking we want our kids to develop.
The “be careful” paradox
Here’s the thing that keeps 38% of parents up at night: we know we need to explain why we’re asking them to be careful, but we’re not always sure we’re getting through. Almost every parent (97%) says it’s important for their child to understand the reasoning, with most having that conversation immediately or within a few minutes.
But the research revealed something interesting: only 34% of our “be careful” warnings are about actual danger. For 45% of parents, it’s just a gut reaction, a reflex that flies out of our mouths before we’ve even processed what’s happening.
And that reflex says a lot about how we parent today. On one hand, our approach is fantastic. We help foster our kids’ interests, provide them with attention, resources, and assistance at almost every turn. But in doing so, we sometimes don’t give them as much opportunity to explore, make mistakes, and even get hurt a little. Previous generations were decidedly more hands off (did a single one of us ever drink a glass of water, let alone be provided with 18 different water bottles to lose?). Kids were left to their own devices to be rough and tumble, exploratory, and quite frankly a little more feral. Now they’re ON devices without as much of that freedom to just figure things out. So those “be careful” reflexes? They’re coming from a place of love, but they might also be limiting the very exploration we’re trying to encourage.
The goal, according to experts at Lightbridge Academy, is to help kids build safe habits (57%) while still nurturing the curiosity and resilience that will serve them throughout life. It’s about replacing “because I said so” (which 61% of us heard growing up) with explanations that help them understand cause and effect.
Today’s kids are more curious
Nearly all parents (97%) describe their children as curious, with 71% saying their kids are “very curious.” Even more striking? Seventy-seven percent believe their child is more curious than they were at the same age.
This makes sense when you think about it. Today’s parents are more likely to say “be careful” (71%) than “because I said so” (only 22% use this regularly). And three-quarters of parents report positive reactions from their kids, suggesting this shift in approach is actually working.
CEO Gigi Schweikert of Lightbridge Academy puts it perfectly: “Even before they’ve stepped into a classroom, parents can see early sparks of curiosity and creativity in their children—passions that can one day grow into future careers.”
Balancing safety and curiosity
Your kid’s fascination with door stoppers isn’t annoying (okay, maybe a little). It’s scientific thinking in action. When they build bug houses, they’re exploring ecosystems. When they obsess over elevator buttons, they’re learning about cause and effect.
The goal isn’t to have all the answers or to eliminate every risk. It’s to create space for exploration while teaching them to think critically about the world around them. After all, 92% of parents say developing STEAM skills is important, and those skills start with curiosity.
So the next time your child asks their 46th question of the day about where dreams go or why hippos can run, take a breath. You’re not just answering random questions. You’re raising the next generation of resilient thinkers, innovators, and scientists.
Even if you have to Google how elevator buttons work first.