Children Of Our Time

ThailandTom

I have been watching an experiment that is based in the UK and has been running since the yar 2000. I have just seen an episode where the children are at around 7-9. One thing really shocked me. They do a lot of tests and things in this series but they had an image of 7 illustrated people of the same clothing colour etc but they went from very skinny to very fat. Nearly every child at this age when asked wanted to be the skinniest person.

It is a very great and interesting series if you can catch it, I advise it.

karasti

I'll have to see if I can find it, it sounds really interesting. It's sad how fast kids pick that stuff up, kids as young as 8 and 9 suffer eating disorders. Parents don't realize how their comments (especially when they think kids aren't listening) and the tv shows they let kids watch can contribute to it. It's hard, because some kids aren't affected nearly as much as others, and by the time you realize it, it can be too late. Better not to expose them to it at all at young ages. It's become acceptable for very young kids to listen to the same music, watch the same tv/movies and play the same video games as their parents. My son just turned 10 and I can't tell you how many parents of kids that age allow them to play M rated games and watch R rated movies.

RebeccaS

Is this what you're talking about?

ThailandTom

@RebeccaS I cannot open the video for some reason but it looks American and this whole experiemnt/series is English. They stay with these kids from when they were born in 2,000 until they are 20 years old. Right now they are about 12 but I am only yet seeing when they are around the 7-9 period.

It is the simple act of capitalism that has produced this. They did a test where they had 2 sodas which were in fact the same but they put one in a pink branded bottle named princess soda and another in a blue bottle named rocket soda. Then they were asked which is the tastiest, EVERY child corresponded to their gener roles apart from one black child who said they both tasted the same.

I will try and find a link.

RebeccaS

No this is a BBC series, but it is from 2000 I think? Or it started following the kids in 2000? I'm not sure. Yeah, find a link

ThailandTom

This is part 3/6 of episode 1 but this is the series I am speaking about.

RebeccaS

Yeah it's the same show. I posted part one of episode one.

ThailandTom

I might add this is not from the very start at a further glance, it is quite far into the series.

tmottes

Whats the name of the show? haha

ThailandTom

tmottes said:

Whats the name of the show? haha

The name of this thread...

RebeccaS

ThailandTom said:

I might add this is not from the very start at a further glance, it is quite far into the series.

Yeah I think you're right.

person

My own 7 year old niece is generally a very nice and considerate child but she easily calls the big cartoon characters fat and generally has a negative attitude towards large people on TV.

I don't know if she gets it from the culture or from some family or friend somewhere. I feel that if she were aware that calling people fat wasn't very nice she wouldn't do it, or at least not so easily.

ThailandTom

RebeccaS said:

ThailandTom said:

I might add this is not from the very start at a further glance, it is quite far into the series.

Yeah I think you're right.

lol, it is hard stealing things from youtube sometimes eh. I watched this series on TV from the UK to here in Thiland which has a couple of UK channels. I remember seeing it in the first episodes and thinking I really want to see how these kids turn out. The variables are right across the sprectrum, one mother has no arms for example, some are brought up in 'bad' areas and some are thrust into high status situations. It is a great experiement and I think something to view.

I think @federica may be able to say a few things here as she is based in the UK and may have seen it.

ThailandTom

Sorry I think it is actually 'Child Of Our Time'

RebeccaS

ThailandTom said:

RebeccaS said:

ThailandTom said:

I might add this is not from the very start at a further glance, it is quite far into the series.

Yeah I think you're right.

lol, it is hard stealing things from youtube sometimes eh. I watched this series on TV from the UK to here in Thiland which has a couple of UK channels. I remember seeing it in the first episodes and thinking I really want to see how these kids turn out. The variables are right across the sprectrum, one mother has no arms for example, some are brought up in 'bad' areas and some are thrust into high status situations. It is a great experiement and I think something to view.

I think @federica may be able to say a few things here as she is based in the UK and may have seen it.

Yeah it's really good. All I could find on YouTube were 2 episodes both in six parts. They were both the personality test episodes, sort of like a series special in two parts. I couldn't find any other episodes from the series.

This is part one of episode 2 from the personality test special

ThailandTom

RebeccaS said:

ThailandTom said:

RebeccaS said:

ThailandTom said:

I might add this is not from the very start at a further glance, it is quite far into the series.

Yeah I think you're right.

lol, it is hard stealing things from youtube sometimes eh. I watched this series on TV from the UK to here in Thiland which has a couple of UK channels. I remember seeing it in the first episodes and thinking I really want to see how these kids turn out. The variables are right across the sprectrum, one mother has no arms for example, some are brought up in 'bad' areas and some are thrust into high status situations. It is a great experiement and I think something to view.

I think @federica may be able to say a few things here as she is based in the UK and may have seen it.

Yeah it's really good. All I could find on YouTube were 2 episodes both in six parts. They were both the personality test episodes, sort of like a series special in two parts. I couldn't find any other episodes from the series.

This is part one of episode 2 from the personality test special

Yea Rebecca the series is really really good and exstensive, there is so much difference on what they test and experiment on, it may be creativity, willing to win, intillect, anxiety whatever it is getting tested where it comes from and what are the conditions. Genetic or surroundings, or both?

karasti

observing that someone is larger, smaller, or different color (or otherwise is different) is completely normal for kids to do, it's how they are taught to react to those differences that is the key. But even when you teach them about manners and such, kids that are young yet have little impulse control and just make observations, much to their parents horror, lol. Noticing someone is tall/short/fat is one thing, but their ability to understand that pointing it out hurts their feelings, and getting them to think before they say things that could hurt feelings takes a bit longer.

tmottes

Child of Our Time

Edit: A fairly useless page on it. LOL

MaryAnne

Reminds me of a funny story about kids and 'noticing' things....

My daughter was about 3 or 4 yrs old. I had a doctor's appointment and took her with me with the plan that my brother would pick her up at the doctor's office just a little while after we arrived there, so i could get in and see the doctor in peace. Everything went as planned - after being in the waiting room for about 15 minutes or so, my brother came to get her.

As they were leaving, Nina, (my daughter) kissed me goodbye, smiled and waved at the only two other women, sitting on either side of me in the waiting room. I said to her as she was being silly, and going out the door holding my brother's hand, something like "Be Good - I'll Miss you!"
Nina stopped dead in her tracks, took a step back toward me, and announced very seriously and very loudly; "Ohhhh, You'll be JUST FINE, Mommy. You just sit right there in the middle of those two nice black ladies, and you'll be OK..." I wanted to hide in a hole! LOL

I just turned beet red and chuckled (a little) and said "Ok, Nina, Byeeeeee..." and gave my brother a look like get-her-out-of-here! The door closed behind them and I was still blushing and feeling pretty conspicuous.
I looked up and both ladies were smiling, and one turned to me and laughed and said... "Well, you're just the cream in the cookie, aren't you!" (an Oreo cookie reference, for those non-Americans) The other woman busted out laughing and so did I.
Nina didn't say anything "wrong" - she was just making an obvious observation that adults usually try not to notice, and if we do, we don't say anything about it!

For weeks afterwards, I thanked my good fortune (and good choices) to have raised my kids without prejudice or racially foul language... just the same as I was raised. Imagine if she was used to hearing and using other words that would have been highly offensive or crass...



you know what they say --- "Kids! Can't live with 'em.... can't sell 'em."

karasti

When we were in a toy store once there was a really large lady standing in an aisle and blocking it. We stopped to look at something else, and my son, who was maybe 4 or 5 at the time said "But I wanna look at this!" And I said we had to wait our turn, and he said "Well maybe if that lady wasn't so fat, we could look, too!" I later asked him why he'd say something like that "well because at school (preschool) my teacher says she's fat all the time."

Then today, my current 4 year old asked for my help in the bathroom, and said, "Mom, did you know assholes, and butts, are the same thing? Poop comes out of them."

I sometimes say words I shouldn't, but that is not one of them and I have no idea where he got it. Usually if he repeats a bad word, he doesn't understand the context, and clearly this time he did, lol. Time to quiz the older children, me thinks.

ThailandTom

karasti said:

observing that someone is larger, smaller, or different color (or otherwise is different) is completely normal for kids to do, it's how they are taught to react to those differences that is the key. But even when you teach them about manners and such, kids that are young yet have little impulse control and just make observations, much to their parents horror, lol. Noticing someone is tall/short/fat is one thing, but their ability to understand that pointing it out hurts their feelings, and getting them to think before they say things that could hurt feelings takes a bit longer.

That is true but what I was referring to with this image is that every person was the same height and colour with the same clothes but just went from very skinny to very fat across 7 people.

ThailandTom

If anybody is interested this explains exactly what it is, good ol wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_Our_Time

MaryAnne

I'm fat... and I've been fat for at least the last 25 yrs. In the grocery store, about 15 yrs ago, a woman was standing in the line next to me, with her kid in the cart seat, who was about 4-5 yrs old.

As we were standing in the long check-out lines, moving along very very slowly, the boy had been looking around and commenting on all sorts of things and asking lots of questions, too.
Things like; "Why can't we go faster?" "How much longer?" "Look at the train, mommy", etc. This was a kid that (you could tell) never stopped talking! And this was a Mom who had the art of 'tuning out' chatter perfected! LOL

Until the kid spotted me....
I said to myself "Here it comes, MaryAnne...here it comes...." and sure enough, he turns to his mother and says, "Mom? Why is that lady so.... fat?" And without missing a beat, without even looking up at me, or taking her attention from what she was doing (looking in her purse or something) she said very matter-of-factly,
"God makes people in all sizes and colors... and He loves us all."
And the kid was like, "Hmmm, OK..." and that was that. He moved right on to chatter about other things.

That was the best answer I ever heard anyone give a child who 'notices' someone's size or anything else about someone. It was more of a 'No Reaction' reaction than anything else, but her answer was to the point and left no room for further discussion. I thought she did great.

MaryAnne

ThailandTom said:

If anybody is interested this explains exactly what it is, good ol wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_Our_Time

I'm kind of struck by the number of children they chose who were either from broken homes, lost a twin or two, born prematurely, have some sort of illness or disability from birth, or are born to parents with 'problems.'
I wonder why?
I could see a FEW out of the 25, but half? (I counted 13 or 14 out of 25)

I'm not sure of the significance of such a large number of "non average" kids being studied for the reasons cited.
::: shrugs::: I would think if the research is to prove nature or nurture (so to speak) they would try to get kids from very similar, very stable, average backgrounds. And (it appears from the list) they only chose ONE black child?
Hmmm...

RebeccaS

MaryAnne said:

ThailandTom said:

If anybody is interested this explains exactly what it is, good ol wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_Our_Time

I'm kind of struck by the number of children they chose who were either from broken homes, lost a twin or two, born prematurely, have some sort of illness or disability from birth, or are born to parents with 'problems.'
I wonder why?
I could see a FEW out of the 25, but half? (I counted 13 or 14 out of 25)

I'm not sure of the significance of such a large number of "non average" kids being studied for the reasons cited.
::: shrugs::: I would think if the research is to prove nature or nurture (so to speak) they would try to get kids from very similar, very stable, average backgrounds. And (it appears from the list) they only chose ONE black child?
Hmmm...

I think they chose expectant parents rather than children, no sure on that though.

MaryAnne

And now it seems there's uncertainty for the series to continue:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/winston-fumes-at-axing-of-child-of-our-time-2290146.html

@RebeccaS

It is very possible the families were chosen just prior to the birth of their kids... because Lord Winston (the mind behind the experiment/series) is actually a fertility specialist. I also think this is not "the average" as far as families and kids go. Like I said, tossing a few non-average kids/families into the mix would possibly prove certain points or dispel some myths, but to choose more than half that way? Seems skewed.

ThailandTom

I don't know the process of choosing the children and their parents, but it is a really good series for sure. The only videos of that special episode on youtube is nothing like the actual series, there is no stage or audience etc, everything is totally taken from their homes or whever they may be at the time.

There is one child that I can see from what I have seen has a very good chance of turning into a criminal, that would be so bad for him and the family to be shown him from birth to the age of 20 and him turning into a criminal. I forget the name now, I will have to look back at the list and reply again. Each episode has a number of different tests mixed in with day to day goings on with each family and it is interesting seeing each parents method of bringing up their kids and how it ends up working or not working for that matter.

ThailandTom

I am pretty sure it is James I am thinking of.

ThailandTom

Yep here is a youtube video actually. When I saw him at the age of 7-8 it is even more evident.