12/23/2025
I asked my 5 year old if he wanted to go to dinner and he really said to me - "I've been in the large world today & now I need to be in a small space." There has been no point in my life that I've been able to express that feeling as well as he just did.
Out of the mouths of children comes the most profound wisdom we adults spend years trying to articulate. That need to retreat, to decompress, to make your world smaller after being exposed to too much—he captured it perfectly in one simple sentence.
We've all felt it. That overwhelming sensation after a long day of being "on”, dealing with people, responsibilities, stimulation, noise, demands. You get home and all you want is to curl up in your bed, sit in your closet, hide in the bathroom, anywhere that feels contained and safe.
You need your world to shrink for a moment so you can breathe again. But most of us have never been able to name that feeling so accurately.
Kids haven't learned to suppress or ignore their needs yet. They listen to their bodies and emotions without judgment or guilt. When they're overstimulated, they know it. When they need space, they ask for it.
When the large world becomes too much, they retreat to their small space without apologizing or justifying. Somewhere along the way to adulthood, we lose that honest connection to what we actually need.
Maybe we should take notes from this 5-year-old. It's okay to need to be in a small space after being in the large world. It's okay to say "I'm overstimulated and I need to be alone."
It's okay to honor your limits instead of pushing through. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is make your world tiny for a while—and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
