I never fully disconnected to my inner child, had a brief period of my life where I tried to act all mature and pretentious and suppressed some habits but slowly diverged back to my natural self.

Today I can confidently say that I am a productive and respected member of society while keeping my inner child up and I’m very very happy with it! So in my eyes it’s possible to be both in today’s world

Just show them a picture of a homeless person next to a beautiful celebrity and ask them with whom they’d like to hang out with.
Depending on their age they probably are already familiar with the concept without realizing it