Oct. 20, 2025

What Our Kids Teach Us About Life

What Our Kids Teach Us About Life

In this heartfelt episode of We Are the Hansons, Myia and the family open up about the beautiful lessons their kids have taught them—lessons that go far beyond the classroom. From patience and forgiveness to laughter in chaos and finding joy in the simplest moments, the Hansons share how parenting 13 children continues to reshape their outlook on love, gratitude, and purpose.

Through real stories and raw reflections, this episode reminds us that sometimes the greatest teachers in life are the little ones holding our hands.

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The other night, my youngest daughter handed me a drawing.

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She made stick figures, a crooked heart, a sunshine with

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too many rays, and underneath it all in her little handwriting,

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it said, Mommy, you make my world shiny. And I

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just stood there staring at it, because in that moment,

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my eight year old reminded me of something I forget

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way too often. The love, joy, and purpose don't live

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in big things. They live in the tiny ones. You

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know what's wild. We spend so much energy trying to

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teach our kids everything, how to tie their shoes, how

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to be kind, how to navigate this complicated world. But

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if we're honest, really honest, they're teaching us just as much,

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maybe more. This episode isn't just about parenting. It's about

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what our kids, these little humans we're trying so hard

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to raise, actually teach us about being better humans ourselves,

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about presence, about joy, about letting go of things that

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don't matter and holding tight to things that do. I'm

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Maya Hanson and this is we are the Hansens. Welcome

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back friends. If you're new here, hey, I'm so glad

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you found us. This show is where we open the

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door to real family life. The messy, the magical, and

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the moments that remind us who we are. No filters,

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no perfection, just honest conversations about what it means to

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grow together as a family. Today, we're diving into a

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topic that hits home for every parent, grandparent, teacher, or

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anyone who's ever spent time with kids. What our kids

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teach us about life, from patience to forgiveness, from curiosity

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to courage. I'm going to share stories from our home

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and maybe you'll recognize some of your own in them too,

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Because here's the thing. We think we sign up to

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be the teachers when we become parents, but somewhere along

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the way, the rules flip and our kids they become

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some of the greatest guides. So grab your coffee, settle in,

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and let's talk about the lessons we didn't know we

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needed when we become parents. We think we're the teachers, right,

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We're the ones showing them how to walk, how to read,

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how to share, how to say thank you and I'm sorry.

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But somewhere along the way, the roles start to shift.

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My fourteen year old once said to me during an

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argument and we were really going at it, I'm not

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going to sugarcoat it. She looked at me and said, mom,

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why do all adults forget how to listen? And it

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stopped me cold, because she was right. Kids see things

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we've become blind to. They're brutally honest, sometimes painfully so,

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but often that honesty carries wisdom we've buried under years

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of politeness and productivity. I was so focused on being heard.

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I'm making my point that I stop listening to hers.

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Through their eyes, we learn that not every problem needs fixing.

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Sometimes it just needs listening. Not every mess needs control,

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sometimes it needs grace, and the biggest one, not every

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moment needs needs rushing. Our kids remind us to slow down.

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They remind us that a Tuesday afternoon can hold just

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as much magic as a vacation if we let it.

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There was this moment a few months ago. I was

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answering emails on my phone while my nine year old

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was trying to show me a dance she had learned, Mom,

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watch this, Mom, Mom, are you watching? And I wasn't,

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not really. My eyes were on her, but my mind

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was somewhere else. Entirely, she stopped midspin and just looked

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at me. You're not really here, are you, and again,

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brutally honest, painfully accurate. So I put the phone down,

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I actually put it in another room and said, show

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me again. I'm all yours. And you know what. The

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dance wasn't that complicated. It was maybe twenty seconds long,

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but the look on her face when I really truly

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want that was everything. Kids teach us that presence is

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the greatest gift we can give, not perfection, not answers,

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not even advice, just showing up, being there, seeing them.

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And here's the other thing. They teach us perspective. When

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something goes wrong in their world, a lost toy, a

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broken cran, a friend who didn't want to play, it

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feels massive to them, and as adults, our first instinct

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is to minimize it. It's just a toy, we'll get

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another one. But to them, it's not just a toy.

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It's their worlds shifting. And maybe instead of teaching them

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that their feelings are too big, they're teaching us that

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ours are too small. That we've learned to dismiss our

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own emotions, to push through to get over it. But kids,

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they feel at all, fully, loudly, and then they move on,

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not because it didn't matter, but because they processed it.

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Maybe that's the lesson feel it, honor it, and let

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it go. In those sticky moments of chaos, shoes missing,

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breakfast spilled, everyone's running late, they're not trying to ruin

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your morning. They're just being human, learning, existing in the moment.

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And when we stop trying to control everything and start

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rolling with it, that's when we remember what being alive

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really feels like. Not perfect, not polished, just real. Patience.

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Owe that word. Every parenting book talks about it, every

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well meaning friend reminds you to have it, But no

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one tells you that patience isn't a virtue you're born with.

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It's a muscle, and muscles get sore. There are mornings

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when we're running late, someone can't find their shoes, someone

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else insists they need to bring seventeen stuffed animals to school,

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and cereal somehow ends up on the cat, And in

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those moments, patience feels like a myth. But here's what

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I've learned and my kids taught me. This patience isn't

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about feeling frustrated. It's about what you do with the frustration.

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My nine year old once said to me in the

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middle of one of those mornings, mom, we can be late.

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The world won't explode. And she was right, the world

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won't explode, but my heart might if I don't learn

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how to slow down, if I don't learn how to

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breathe through the mess instead of fighting it. Kids test

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us absolutely, but they also train us. They sketch our

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capacity for love, for understanding, and for grace. Mommy, every

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why question when you're already exhausted, every meltdown in the

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grocery store, every bedtime negotiation that turns into forty five

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minute debate, they're not doing it to break us. They're

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giving us a chance to build something stronger. And maybe

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patience isn't about waiting quietly, it's about loving actively while

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you wait. There was this one evening I made dinner

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and my youngest took one look and said, I don't

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like that. She hadn't even tried it. I felt that

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familiar heat rising, the frustration the I spent time making

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this feeling, and then I remembered something my own mom

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told me once. They're not rejecting you, they're just being

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a kid. So instead of pushing I took a breath

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and said, that's okay. What sounds good to you. And

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you know what, she said, can we make silly sandwiches together?

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So we did peanut butter and banana faces and we

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laughed the whole time. The meal I planned didn't happen,

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but something better did. Connection joy a memory she'll probably

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remember longer than any perfectly plated dinner. Patience I'm learning

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isn't about getting it right the first time. It's about

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giving everyone, including yourself, the grace to try again. If

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you've ever watched a child discover something new, a bug,

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a rainbow, a weirdly shaped cloud, you've seen pure curiosity

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and action, no judgment, just wonder. Somewhere between growing up

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and paying bills, we lose that, but our kids they

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hand it back to us every single day. Eight year

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old once asked me why do stars twinkle if they're fire?

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And instead of immediately pulling out my phone to google it,

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I paused because I realized she didn't want a scientific explanation.

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She wanted to wonder with me, So I said, what

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do you think? And she got this look on her face,

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her eyes wide, thinking hard, and she said, maybe they're

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winking at us. And in that moment, I thought, when

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did I stop letting things be magical. When did I

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start needing an answer for everything instead of just sitting

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in the mystery. Kids live in questions. They're endlessly curious,

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and that curiosity it leads to courage. Our kids aren't

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afraid to fall. They climb too high, they jump too far,

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They try things they've never done before because no one's

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told them they can't yet. I watched my son try

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to ride a bike without trying wheels for the first time.

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He fell, He got up, fell again, scraped his knee,

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and I'll be honest, I wanted to stop him, to say,

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let's try again tomorrow. You don't have to do this today.

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But he looked at me and said, I got it, mom,

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just one more try, and he did. He got it

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not because he was fearless, but because he was brave

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enough to keep going even though he was scared. And

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maybe as adults, it's our turn to relearn that, to

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stop being afraid of trying or failing or looking silly,

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because courage isn't about the absence of fear. It's the

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choice to live with wonder. Anyway, I think we forgot

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how brave it is just to try something new, to

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raise your hand, even when you're not sure, to say

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I don't know and be okay with it. Kids do

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that every day. They ask questions without worrying they'll sound dumb.

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They make friends without overthinking it. They dance like nobody's watching,

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because to them, it doesn't matter if they are. What

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if we gave ourselves that same permission, What if we

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stopped waiting to feel ready and just started. One of

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the greatest lessons kids teach us is forgiveness, and I

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mean real forgiveness, not the polite kind where you say

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it's fine but still hold a grudge, the kind where

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you actually let it go. They can fight with their

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siblings one minute, and I mean really fight over something

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like who gets the blue cup, and two minutes later

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they're laughing together like nothing happened. No grudges, no silent treatments,

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no bringing it up three days later, just clean slates.

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As adults, we hold on to things our pride are hurt,

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that thing someone said five years ago that we still

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replay in our heads. But our kids they let go.

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And sometimes when I mess up, when I yell or

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forget something important or overreact to something small, my kids

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are the first to say it's okay, mom. No hesitation,

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no conditions, no lectures about how I should have known better,

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just love. There was this one night I had a

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terrible day. Everything went wrong, and when my kids were

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taking forever to get ready for bed, I snapped, I've

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raised my voice in a way I'm not proud of,

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and my oldest just looked at me quiet. I went

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back to her room about ten minutes later, sat on

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the edge of her bed and said, I'm sorry. I

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shouldn't have yelled. That wasn't fair. And you know what

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she did. She reached up and hugged me, and she said,

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I forgive you. Mom. Everyone has bad days. She's fourteen,

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and in that moment, she taught me more about grace

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than I've ever learned in four decades of life. Kids

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don't keep score, they don't file away your mistakes to

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use against you later. They just move forward. And every

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time they forgive me or each other, they teach me

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that grace doesn't need to be earned, It just needs

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to be given. What if we gave that kind of

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grace to ourselves and to each other. What if we

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stopped waiting for people to be perfect before we forgive

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them Maybe that's the real lesson here, that love isn't

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about never messing up, it's about showing up even when

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we do. Remember that drawing I mentioned at the beginning,

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the one that said, Mommy, you make my world shiny.

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That's gratitude in its purest form. Kids don't overcomplicate thankfulness.

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They don't wait for holidays or milestones or big achievements.

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They just say it when they feel it. They find

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joy in bubbles and pancakes shaped like dinosaurs, in the

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way sunlight hits the kitchen floor. And when they hand

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us those moments, when they notice the little things we

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do and say thank you with their whole heart, they

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remind us to stop chasing more, to stop waiting for

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the next big thing, and to start caroshing now. My

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youngest asked me last week, what's your favorite part of today?

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And I was about to say something generic, something responsible,

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But then I stopped and I really thought about it,

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and I said, right now, sitting here with you, and

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she smiled this huge, gap toothed smile, and said mine too.

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That's the shiny world she was talking about, Not the

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big wins, not the highlight reel, just this right here,

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right now. They teach us patience not as perfection, but

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as practice. They teach us courage not as fearlessness, but

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as trying anyway. They teach us forgiveness not just forgetting,

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but as freeing ourselves. And most of all, they teach

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us that the world really is shiny if we're willing

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to slow down enough to see it that way. Thank

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you for spending time with me today on We Are

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the hands Ends. If this episode made you smile, cry,

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or think a little deeper, please share it with another

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parent who might need that reminder too. You can find

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us on YouTube under We are the Handsens. You can

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also find us on our Facebook, The Hansens, and get

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over and subscribe to our YouTube. I'm Maya Hanson reminding

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you that sometimes the best lessons don't come from books.

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They come from the little teachers living right under our roof.

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Until next time, keep learning, keep loving, and remember we're

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all growing up together.