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Don't forget Child Of Our Time at 8pm

129 replies

NotABanana · 07/05/2008 19:42

Smile
OP posts:
squilly · 07/05/2008 21:39

Will this be on BBCIplayer danceswith?....

CocodeBear · 07/05/2008 21:46

Nice summary JV.

TwoIfBySea · 07/05/2008 21:52

Find out more here

I have to say I thought it so funny when asked if he knew how babies were made Tyrese said "No, do you?"

I find the programme quite interesting, I don't think it should be taken so seriously to actually hate some of the participants. Although I was suprised at the twins, not one talkative and one quiet like my dts. Dts1 would have out-talked the girls easily in that test, they would probably have told him to shut up.

SlartyBartFast · 07/05/2008 21:54

these are some strong women!

i wondered about whether the man whose mum had died, whether it was a male partner he had had.
i seem to remember him an artist but only a small mention of him liking sculptures...

rhianna seems very intelligent, but put on that crying about daddy not there enough! my god!
i don;t think she should be privy to so much, daddy in the pub every night, she looked a tad embarrassed to be sayign it too

SlartyBartFast · 07/05/2008 21:54

my youngest is same age so love this programme.

CocodeBear · 07/05/2008 21:55

I'd have thought by 7 kids would know about where babies came from.

Mine are under five so I can say stuff like that

Pisha · 07/05/2008 22:05

My dd knew where babies come from when she was 4! But ds1 is 4 now and I wouldn't dream of having that talk with him, he's got no interest and it would all go over his head.

DD was born end of 2000 so is same age and unfortunately loves Bratz, I tried to put it off as long as I could but I'm not going to tell her no and TBH I prefer bratz I think to barbie, Barbie is so skinny with massive boobs although admittedly bratz only marginally better.

I did lol at the boy saying he wanted to be the overweight boy so he could bash people over! Sounds exactly my ds1!

I do worry about dd though. I am overweight atm and dieting but never talk to her about dieting or me not liking my figure, I just say mummys not eating chocolate or whatever to be healthy. DD is very slim (see profile pics) but a few months ago said she wanted to have a flat tummy like Miss B (her teacher, very young!) We did our best to tell her she was beautiful as she is etc and shes not mentioned it since and doesn't seem to have any more concerns about her figure but she is quite obsessive about what she wears. Miss B is now 5 months pg so hoping her tummy isn't quite so flat after having the baby

DS1 on the other hand wants a big tummy like mummy and daddy!

squilly · 07/05/2008 22:30

DD knows babies come out of a mummies tummy. She knows they come out of your vagina or 'tinkle' as she calls it, or it can be cut out of your tummy, depending on how things go.

She doesn't know how babies get in the tummy as she's never asked.

I was at the weight issues. My daughter wants to be thin because she associates it with good health, but I've often told her it's not good to be too thin. It's better to have curves.

I'd be scared to show my dd the pictures in case she picked the skinniest picture around.

My dd has issues with eating and I worry this will become a weight thing, but luckily, she's tall and naturally willowy, tho I see curves on her I don't remember having at her age (7yo).

If nothing else, this programm certainly gets you thinking about those conceptions we form about our kids and how they think.

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 00:15

That comment about Helena's school really got my goat too.

Oh yes, because they care soooooo much about giving her the "best" start in life they are paying for her fecking education...

Because everyone knows money gets you everything..... and only MONEY gets you the "best" school

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 00:16

The boys looked so daft in that "gangsta" gear. I don't believe they all chose it. Were they really given a wide range of options?

Grown men look twats in medallions with dollar signs on and baseball caps back-to-front, so why should 7-year-old boys be any different?

DirtySexyMummy · 08/05/2008 00:18

I don't believe they all chose from a wide selection either, given that 2 of the girls has chosen the same pink dress with the same belt.

Flame · 08/05/2008 07:50

Def not a decent range of clothes to choose from. DD would have probably ended up with the pink top, but only through lack of spiderman or ben 10 to choose from.

I don't remember seeing it at the beginning of the year either

Gobbledigook · 08/05/2008 08:26

I just did the experiment with ds1 (7) where you choose between rich, famous, kind, clever, good looking, healthy.

He immediately chucked out rich and famous and the 2 he most wanted to be/thought were important were healthy (picked straightaway without hesitation) and kind.

That's my boy!

There is no way he'd have chosen the gangster outfits - they don't watch anything with that kind of look - they don't see MTV or anything like that.

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 09:07

I wonder if any of the parents come on here?...

Chances are someone does.

TheDuchessOfNorksBride · 08/05/2008 10:14

The experiments always seem rigged. If they'd done the talking tables with Parys or that sporty lad from Yorkshire, chances are the girls wouldn't have got a word in edgeways. The girls they did use, Het, Eve & Rhianna, always have more to say than most of the other girls. So the outcome was entirely predictable.

I only caught the end of the clothes bit, suspect that was tailored to suit commentary too. There was a similar experiment involving 'which house does the nice person live in' last year and I felt that was heavily prejudiced to make them all pick the biggest detached house. I still enjoy watching it though!

DD1 is very like Welsh Megan, independent, loves being outdoors. But she also has a pink bike and Bratz dolls (one with camping gear, one in a long sparkly evening dress & tiara and one who plays football?!?). Children are far more multi-faceted than the programme makes out.

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 10:33

I think you're right, Duchess. They decide in advance what they'd like the outcome to be.

I'm also surprised more of them didn't give reasons for their answers about the soft-drink experiment (as Rianna did) and that more of them didn't twig it was the same stuff. (DD is nearly 8 and I think she'd know straight away that the Princess Pop was marketed at girls and the Rocket Pop at boys, and that it was probably the same drink...)

I did have to laugh at the dad who said "No reason why a girl can't be an astronaut" and then rather undermined this stab at gender equality by adding something like "in a nice fancy spacesuit, with her lipstick on!"

charliecat · 08/05/2008 10:46

this is on bbc i player for ayone who missed it!

squilly · 08/05/2008 11:05

I guess they can only capture so much in a 45(?) minute programme.

Reflecting the diversity of children across the piece must be impossible. And I daresay it suits purpose for it to be slightly disturbing, presenting our worst fears back to us and saying it's inevitable regardless of our backgrounds/input, etc. that we'll have anything other than broods of tarts and gangsters!!!

I can't imagine mine would EVER pink a pink dress with a belt and fishnet nights. She hates anything overly girly. Especially tights and belts. She'd have gone with jeans and a tee but I suspect they weren't provided as part of the selection process.

If you give kids fancy dress items like this, a lot of them will gravitate to the shiny and the theatrical. It's pretty obvious really.

And my girls mate Max would have talked the hind leg off any kid in that room, so it's a load of old nonsense to draw conclusions from that exercise that men aren't great communicators. I remember the last play date we had with Max I thought I'd got tinnitus when he'd gone!!!

The body shape thing, as well, I've been thinking about. All the girls picked really skinny shapes, but that's no surprise is it?

Kids are hardly experts at accurately guestimating sizes...if you say it's good to be slim, which lots of us do either concsiously or unconcsiously...kids then pick out the skinniest shape available. It doesn't mean that's how they all want to be, though admittedly, some of the girls interviewed did seem worryingly body conscious in my opinion.

Some of the comments the kids were coming out with about fat people were seriously disturbing and you have to ask, where does that come from?

We've asked our dd about fatness before, not because it's an issue, but it was flagged up in a programme we were watching (I can't remember what it was now) and she said your shape doesn't have any effect on whether you'll be nasty or nice...it's just your shape.

Dd's not super skinny...she's kinda lean but already has curvy hips, so I'm trying to ensure she gets positive messages about curves.

IMO this programme, or social experiment as they call it, involves such a small sample size of the population it can't possibly give representative conclusions. Having said that, it does put a magnifying glass on a lot of the issues that we, as parents, like to talk and worry about. For that alone, it's got to be worth watching, but I don't take it much more seriously than I take Hollyoaks or Tracy Beaker!

branflake81 · 08/05/2008 12:09

I find this programme mildly interesting, if only to see how the kids grow and develop over time.

However, scientifically speaking I really don't think it holds any water. Not only is the sample size of children very small to be drawing conclusions from, the programme makes very sweeping statements. Just because one child demonstrates certain attributes, suddenly that's because his parents are divorced or he had a traumatic experience with a rocking horse in 2003 - that kind of thing.

I don't think it will prove anything, even after the 18 years that the children's lives are followed but it will be interesting to watch.

I think the 7-up programme which was the precedent for C of our Time was better. There, they just interveiwed the children every few years and imho that gave a better insight into their personalities than these pseudo-scientific experiments.

Flame · 08/05/2008 12:16

I much prefer 7 up too.

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 12:17

There is a new 7-Up, isn't there? Following children born in 2000.

Flame · 08/05/2008 12:28

That sounds familiar

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 12:31

here we go

VictorianSqualor · 08/05/2008 12:57

I watched this in parts whilst putting the dcs to bed.
DD is seven, she said she was d in body shape (good) but wants to be a because it was 'skinny'
With the words she chose healthy and kind thoguh so I was happy there, she threw away famous straight away.
I wonder if Tyreses family are pushing him too hard the other way? There is so much emphasis on him not being in gangs etc what if he'd never thought of it in the first place but their constant worry pushes him that way?
Also was surprised the Dad said black kids have less influence from theis dads because they are around less

UnquietDad · 08/05/2008 12:58

I was a bit at that too VS - almost as if it's expected.