I would walk the dog with my grandson and would prep a poop bag to pick up waste, and he was transfixed so I showed him how to find the top side, part the sides and put it over the hand in preparation for use.

And he was happy to wear a poop bag on his hand, which creeped out granny, even though the bag never actually touched dog poop.

Soon after that it was clear that he discovered (or was trained) to recognize feces is yucky and to be avoided. (he was never in close smelling distance to the dog poop, so he got this from elsewhere.

[–] latenightnoir@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago

I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, but it is undeniably a trend. And, yes, emulation is fine and good, it's one of the many catalysts for individual development.

I was referring to hyperfocusing on favouring the emulation of work, paying bills, moving money, etc. (I don't exactly have a category under which to group these other than "Capitalist adult stuff") - my thinking is that there is a difference between organically emulating what we see our parents doing and having to go through it in a context which is heavily biased toward specific aspects. And I'm not saying this hyperfocus is planned, or has a hidden intent of brainwashing kids into being wage slaves, but I am saying that the latter may be a completely incidental occurrence regardless. Like the increased probability that a child will pick up smoking at one point in life if their parents smoke around them while they're growing up, but on a societal level.

To summarise my thoughts metaphorically, why not make a dinosaur (replace with any other imagination-sparking thing) with the plastic one would use to mould a cash register.

Again, running through this makes me realise that maybe it is just down to being a jaded fart on my end:)) Good thing I'll never be a parent, I guess!