I once took my now teen daughter to the park when she was around 3-4 years old. She was on the swings and another girl of similar age walked over and gets on the swing next to her. We had never met or seen this girl before.
They simultaneously look at each other and without any words started holding hands while they both slowly swayed back and forth on the swings. To this day I still think of this fondly and think adults could learn a lot from children in the open heart category.
Y'know, usually I get annoyed at adults when they try to randomly help me when I don't want or need help. Now, because of this, I am just going to act like they have as pure of an intent as a toddler and treat them accordingly.
My personal headcanon is that every person weaving in and out of traffic on the highway is desperate to get to the hospital before their child is born. It helps me keep calm.
My littlest person knows I deal with chronic pain and sometimes on my bad days when I'm bemoaning my back, she'll come up and start rubbing my back in a very serious and professional way. It does absolutely nothing perceptible physically but it lights up my day so I always make sure to thank her for the excellent massage. She always replies in an equally professional way that I'm welcome. 🥰
Yesterday my 4yo asked me to fold his sweatshirt for him when he was changing in the kindergarten. I said I would help him but I don't know how. He smiled and explained it to me, perfectly folding it in the process.
I think it's a combo of things. Lots of ppl had bad upbringings and don't realize it didn't have to be that way or have been around kids raised by poor parenting and think bad behaviour is the default, many people can't afford kids or even a stable place for them to live today, and the rest think the world is the worst it's ever been because they've never read a history book and so can't imagine bringing a kid into that.
I've got a toddler. It's great. It's hard work but for every minute I put in I get so much back.