Unlike most adults, the typical child has a very natural and uncomplicated approach to happiness. Your child may rarely need grand gestures, expensive gifts or elaborate arrangements to make them feel good. They are satisfied and content with the smallest things, be it a cloud or a tasty drink.

Their route to happiness is uncomplicated and genuine. This can help remind you not to get caught up in life to the point where you forget to appreciate the small things that make it beautiful.

You may be afraid to take up a new hobby or learn a new skill because of your age. Your child, however, doesn’t have such self-doubt. They tackle anything heads-on, whether it’s walking (and falling) or riding a bicycle.

If they want to take part in a brand new activity, that’s exactly what they do. They throw themselves into it wholeheartedly, maybe partly because they have yet to experience failure. Watching your child face everything with a willing go-getter attitude will teach you that nothing is impossible (that is, unless you don’t try).

Your child hasn’t yet acquired the inhibitions of adulthood. They are not afraid to put paint to paper (when did you last do this?) and make a clay model. Or build a contraption with cardboard, glue and sticky tape.

You, on the other hand, may have expectations whenever you start doing something. If you’re going to draw, it has to look good. If you’re going to try watercolour, it has to be the same as the videos you watch on Instagram. Your kid, however, merely wants to create.

Watching them put their imagination into practice could motivate you to let loose and design whatever comes to your mind. No more colouring inside the box!

Children are caring by nature, and have an instinctive desire to help others. Be it directly, like their best friend, or indirectly through charity.

Your kid has probably already inspired you to be the same. Whether you saw them help others yourself or you heard it from their teacher, their actions may cause you to reflect on yourself and make you want to become a better person.

Believe it or not, your child deals with life’s little challenges throughout the day without complaining or falling apart. They just get on with it, whether that means sharpening their pencil when it breaks or picking themselves up when they fall.

Yes, they may cry (and loudly, at that), but distract them for a bit and they will have forgotten all about their troubles.

In this way, you can learn from their attitude towards life. Whatever happens, yes, you can get sad, but you must always remember to pick yourself up and not dwell on it for too long.

Your child generally takes a simple approach when it comes to solving a problem. They look for the easiest solution.

Compare that with your own approach. It probably involves looking at the problem from a thousand different angles. And eventually, it renders you unsure of which route to take.

In contrast, all they do is just select the most obvious path.

For example, you may wonder ‘what show should I watch on the TV tonight?’.

Your child, on the other hand, will most probably answer that question with ‘my favourite show!’.

For some reason, despite us humans being social creatures, we find it hard to make friends when we are older as compared to when we are younger. In this case, your child forms new social relationships easily and trusts other children, unless they are unpleasant. They look for common interests or games that they both want to play and just spend time with each other to have fun.

Adults often struggle to make new friends because they allow previous negative experiences to influence them too much. Seeing your child make friends with others easily may help you realise that making connections with others isn’t as difficult as you thought it was.

It doesn’t take a lot to make your child giggle and shout with joy. Dad jokes that your partner says can have your kid smiling and shaking with laughter in seconds. They don’t need to listen to the latest TV comedian in order to chuckle.

The next time you see them laughing loudly, try to join in with their delight. You’ll find that the more you do this, the more you’ll laugh, too. And besides – it’s hard not to be happy in the presence of your child.

Let’s be real: we are all probably thinking about what will happen next week, or maybe next month, or maybe something that may not even happen in the future. Your child probably doesn’t think about their future too much. They may wonder what they are going to have for dinner the next day, but they won’t worry about something that they can’t control.

In this sense, you can learn from them and try to relax and focus on what is happening and live in the moment. Your child’s focus is always on what interests them at the moment or what makes them happy, so try to do the same.

Almost certainly, he is more aware of ecological issues than you were at his age. He knows all about the need to save the planet’s resources instead of wasting them.

His eco-consciousness is inspiring. Use it to encourage you to think more about recycling and energy-saving techniques.

A version of this story first appeared in Young Parents.

Additional reporting: Terri Kue

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