I've spent years designing learning experiences for adults. I understand cognitive load. I know about spacing effects and retrieval practice and the importance of relevant context. I can talk fluently about how people learn.
Then I became a parent, and I discovered that knowing how learning works and actually applying that knowledge in the moment — when a small person is frustrated, or confused, or just done — are two entirely different skills.
The gap between theory and practice has never been more clear to me than it has been at home. And ironically, that gap has made me a better designer. Not because parenting is a course to be optimized, but because it stripped away the comfortable distance between me and the learner. When you're that close to someone's struggle, you can't pretend the instruction is good enough if the person isn't getting it.