The secret life of 4 year olds

I always find it fascinating to watch children play and interact. However I thought I heard at the beginning of the programme that this was their first chance to interact before school. All of my DGC went to nursery from at least 3 years old and it seems that most children in my area also do so. I wonder if that makes any difference to how they interact socially.

Hopefully they'll be off to a good start, I gathered that they were at a Steiner School.

Totally agree with you there Luckygirl . Are these so called professionals really the people to teach us about childhood behavior? Pathetic. Won't be watching it again that's for sure !

It's amazing how some of the girls were able to express their feelings so well. Their characters already formed, bossy organiser, helpless female, kind hearted peacemaker, etc. I had to laugh when the girls were playing house, and when the boy was on the phone - you know what goes on in their homes! I found it reassuring, they were all nice kids, I hope they will be given a decent world to grow up and grow old in.

We would not do that to adults just to watch them squirm. I really do think it is morally wring to manipulate children in that way. My children always knew that I would be straight with them and that I would not use my greater age, strength and knowledge to demonstrate my greater power; for that is what it is when adults do this to children - a power trip.

I caught the last 10 minutes of this tonight Luckygirl and agree that the "presents" experiment was truly awful. Cruel even.

At 4 years old how can a child even begin to understand the emotions they feel to be left out like this?

This is a new series, Luckygirl.

They did repeat the 'presents' experiment in tonight's programme (with different children, of course) but I don't agree with your opinion.

No prob, phoenix. It's usually me who can't remember names!

Sorry NotTooOld must have crossed posts!

Yes, within the girls there was one that I definitely didn't warm to (and quietly made my own predictions as to how she might be at 15 or so) and another that just seemed to show genuine concern for others.

Watching how Theo 9I think it was) seemed to really want to be friends with the boy with the bus obsession (Tyler?) and how they ended up pottering about in the gardening area was lovely!

I felt for Theo when he wanted to be friends with Tyler and all Tyler wanted to do was play with his buses. The little red haired girl with the curls was a bit of a minx, I thought, but in a nice way. I could have done the job of the so-called experts. Some of their 'observations' were purely common sense. They needed some women experts to give it a bit of depth. My DH is still grumping away because I watched it and he thought it was a load of rubbish. Men!

I have seen it before - and once again was sickened by the unfair presents bit - I hate to see children manipulated by adults. We should be straight and open with them. The psychologists should have known better.

I'll watch it on iPlayer tomorrow because DH wasn't keen.

I didn't warm to Tia, I must say, but that's probably because I was one of the less 'assertive' little girls when I started school at four!

Yes, the girls were ahead of the boys in that respect, weren't they?
The little red haired girl was amazingly sanguine when given her peg present, but Jack showed his disappointment !
The girls all wanted the little quiet blonde girl as their 'bestie', all dominant girls want the quiet one as a friend (my own DD2 was a quiet little blonde girl, and had both girls and boys fighting over her.......a lesson to us all.)

Yes, it was just as fascinating as the first series - it's amazing to watch those little ones learn to relate to each other and make friends.

It was also very interesting to note the different personalities they already have at that age.

The girls were noticeably more advanced both in language and social skills, as expected, but some of the boys seemed to have forged stronger friendships by the end of the programme.

Loved it, too!
I wouldn't want to be 4 again for all the world, life is so complicated.

I empathised with the children who got the clothes pegs as "presents" and felt their disappointment. As a child I used to go to the Press Club children's Christmas party in Edinburgh every year. Santa would give out the presents and I vividly remember one year willing my gift not to be a jigsaw as I hated them.
Guess what? It was a jigsaw and I had to smile and say Thank you and pretend I was thrilled

Totally agree with you rar - found myself smiling all the way through it. Amazed though at the innocence of the experts but note that they are all men - not being biased or anything but found myself saying out loud - "well it's not rocket science" to some of their revelations. Understand, of course, that they are saying stuff to entertain/inform the audience, but feel that possibly many mums/grans etc. will be unsurprised (is there such a word - is now) at the reactions of the little ones.