Tag: evolutionary hack

Posted on

Cat reacts to baby crying

I found a Facebook memory about Fleur:

Changed Fleur. As I carried her down the hall, Luna attacked my calf. Fleur was wailing at the time. It reminded me of my childhood cat doing something similar to my mother.

It made me think of how cats learned to manipulate us with their meow by making it sound like human babies. We are very much attuned to our offspring. So, it was brilliant for felines to leverage this against us.

Of course, over usage of the baby crying range by our cats drives my wife crazy.

Posted on

Sharing is caring

baby children cute dress
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In encouraging Fleur to eat new foods, I often give her something I am eating. When she falters at consuming her meal, I often eat some of hers and make yummy sounds with the idea of showing it is safe to eat.

This safe to eat approach is based on evolutionary theory that children pay attention to what parents eat to determine what is safe. She would look dubious at some things we gave her that we also were not. And then she also demanded things we had in front of us.

The eating and saying yummy has backfired because when she is done, she now holds it out to me to eat. No one else. Just me.

Recently, this has morphed into her feeding me. She will put food next to my mouth until I eat it. Of course, these are foods given to her to eat that she stopped consuming.

At least the food doesn’t go to waste.

 

Posted on

Evolution makes us think our kid is adorable

Children are wired to seek protection from adults around them. Being born years before their ability to survive on the savannah, they need us to keep them safe from the dangers around them. And being adorable is how they ensure we will do so.

It is not vanity making us think our child is the cutest of all. Adults who find their offspring adorable spend more time aware of them and keeping them out of danger to survive to produce descendants. It is an evolutionary hack of our brains.

Of course, even knowing all this, I think my own is still the most adorable of all. Cognitive dissonance tells me so.