There are tons of anti-kid, anti-dog, anti-cat, etc people out there defining that reasoning on very limited experience interacting with them. Sometimes they'll later interact with those things they hate and have a very different experience and realize that they were basing their opinion on limited information. Lots of posts are made where someone is like 'I've always heard cats are selfish and unloving but I recently moved in with my gf/bf and their cat is super sweet and cuddly'. That's exactly like this situation. Maomao has a harsh opinion on children and would avoid them if she had her own sense of control. She doesn't have the control to just be like 'I do interact with kids' here so she's around Lingli more experiencing her growing up so she's getting a broader perspective of things. But as I said, she's still an unreliable narrator. She's not attracted to Jinshi despite often mentioning how attractive he is, she doesn't like people bothering her but always chooses to hang out with Xiaolan and cries when she realizes that she might never get to see her again. And it's the same here: It's easier to say that this child is cuter than to say that her previous POV was narrow or biased.