Children, by Scientific Principles
The application of scientific principles to the experience of having children.
I am a very proud father and I feel incredibly blessed to have children. I also have a background and career in scientific and technical subjects. Much of science is built on the foundations of certain principles and theories which help us to predict things correctly and build things that work consistently.
Over my time as a father I have noticed that some of the scientific principles suggest a similar, corresponding, principle that applies to children. Bearing in mind that so far most of my experience is of children under 8 years old, for your amusement and perhaps comment, I share my thoughts below.
The observer effect
The observer effect is the fact that observing a situation or phenomenon necessarily changes it.
Whenever I take out my phone (or camera) to take a photo of my wonderful toddler doing something cute or funny, they immediately stop doing it and want to look at my phone to see what I am taking a picture of. Now although I am very glad that my children show a keen interest in everything that I do, this does limit my ability to create fond memories as a record of…
