Written by David Elkind, the book has remained a favorite of mine just because of the title. I think children are wonderful. Sharing life with a child is both a challenge and a blessing. Every child is a human being deserving all the respect and consideration afforded to taller varieties, but every child is a child, not a small adult. Children slowly reach maturity through different areas of growth.
Physical growth is obvious, yet adults often fail to understand the implications of size.
For instance, children do not have the coordination that adults have achieved. Coordination will come, but not on demand. Practice is necessary and accidents come with it. Just as with physical development, there are other areas in which children must grow before they can be held accountable by adult standards. Social, emotional, and intellectual growth come with age and experience, not with insistence on adult standards.