The Mind of A Six-Year-Old

[Palanan]

I could use some input from Playgrounders with kids, especially six-year-olds.

I’m dealing with a manuscript which has a six-year-old confusing a statue with a real person, and trying to use band-aids to heal the statue.

My question is, would this be reasonable for a six-year-old? I could easily see this for a two- or three-year-old, but I’d think that by the age of six a child can tell the difference between a statue and a real person. I know I could, but I was a weird kid.

So, what say you, Playground parents? Would a six-year-old honestly think that band-aids could heal a stone statue?

[Rockphed]

I could use some input from Playgrounders with kids, especially six-year-olds.

I’m dealing with a manuscript which has a six-year-old confusing a statue with a real person, and trying to use band-aids to heal the statue.

My question is, would this be reasonable for a six-year-old? I could easily see this for a two- or three-year-old, but I’d think that by the age of six a child can tell the difference between a statue and a real person. I know I could, but I was a weird kid.

So, what say you, Playground parents? Would a six-year-old honestly think that band-aids could heal a stone statue?

Based on my children? No, but she might put bandaids on the statue and say she was healing it. And not just one or 2 bandaids, the whole box. And slather it in antibiotic ointment. The three-year-old would definitely apply bandaids to statuary.

[Peelee]

Would a six-year-old confuse a statue for a real person? Probably not. Except in an "I'm scared of it" or "what if it comes to life" way.

Would a six-year-old do it anyway thinking it would heal the statue? Absolutely plausible.

[Rockphed]

For reference, last night I had to say yell, "wolves have to sleep outside," in order to get my children to stop howling.

[JeenLeen]

If the statue was very realistic and life-like (e.g., not obviously stone), then I could see mistaking it. But it'd probably need to be life-like enough that an adult might mistake it at first glance, and I assume you mean a more common statue.

From my own vague memories of childhood, and from watching my kids (not quite 6, but close), I feel like a child might think they think a band-aid would heal a person or statue, but know inwardly that it won't really. Sort of a half-conscious knowledge that they are pretending, but yet thinking it real.

The context might also matter. If it's a child in some fearful situation, I think they are probably more likely to do something utilizing imagination/fantasy in hopes of things getting better. So, for example, a child lost in the woods or something seeing a broken statue might have more reason to try to heal it than a child, say, walking through the park with their parents and seeing a similar statue.

But, in short, I agree with Peelee's assessment.

[Brother Oni]

Would a six-year-old confuse a statue for a real person? Probably not. Except in an "I'm scared of it" or "what if it comes to life" way.

Would a six-year-old do it anyway thinking it would heal the statue? Absolutely plausible.

I definitely agree with this. Most small children are very self centered; whenever they get a scratch, Mummy would put a plaster on the scratch and it would get better, so if the statue was cracked and they wanted it to 'get better', then they would do the same thing (and probably slather antiseptic cream like you'd use polyfiller).

Note that self centered doesn't mean selfish - a small child on seeing his father upset, would probably give him their favourite teddy bear as that's what makes them happy when they're upset.

[Peelee]

For reference, last night I had to say yell, "wolves have to sleep outside," in order to get my children to stop howling.

You misspelled "in order to get them to sleep outside." :smalltongue:

[Rockphed]

You misspelled "in order to get them to sleep outside." :smalltongue:

They stopped howling after I made that threat. Take it as you will.

[Asmotherion]

Dude, my 3.5 year old speaks and writes in 2 languages, starting a 3rd one and knows multiplications. I know it's an extreamly bright child for her age, but still, children are not stupid. I could see a six year old doing that as part of a game, or by projecting it's imaginary frind to the statue, but it knows this stuff is made of stone. Perhaps a child with slight mental disability would be naive enough to actually confuse it for a person, but not one with average intelect.

[Mith]

Since this is a sort of collection of "**** kids do." I am reminded of putting a tin roof on a play house for my aunt and uncle's grandkids, and we had putty strips for sealing. Said grand son took a whole roll of the putty strip to a tree stump of a tree that was blown over the previous year (so he remembered that it used to be a proper tree) and bandaged up the stump really well. Didn't miss a single spot.

I believe that we were very thankful for buying spare supplies that day.

[Peelee]

Dude, my 3.5 year old speaks and writes in 2 languages, starting a 3rd one and knows multiplications. I know it's an extreamly bright child for her age, but still, children are not stupid. I could see a six year old doing that as part of a game, or by projecting it's imaginary frind to the statue, but it knows this stuff is made of stone. Perhaps a child with slight mental disability would be naive enough to actually confuse it for a person, but not one with average intelect.

Does your 3.5-year-old also believe that raindeer fly a man to every child in the world in a single night? It's definitely possible for a kid 30 months older to believe a band-aid can fix a statue. Knowing languages is a completely separate thing and is not relevant here.

[Asmotherion]

Does your 3.5-year-old also believe that raindeer fly a man to every child in the world in a single night? It's definitely possible for a kid 30 months older to believe a band-aid can fix a statue. Knowing languages is a completely separate thing and is not relevant here.

I suppose... yet it seems kind of a strech.

[Rogar Demonblud]

It really depends on how far the child has gone building a mental model of the world. One who has more experiences seeing statues are more likely to see them as an object than as a person.

[Aedilred]

Does your 3.5-year-old also believe that raindeer fly a man to every child in the world in a single night? It's definitely possible for a kid 30 months older to believe a band-aid can fix a statue. Knowing languages is a completely separate thing and is not relevant here.

I don't know - I think this may come back to what JeenLeen said. In my experience - albeit I am not a parent so that experience is limited - children are capable of being simultaneously quite gullible but also quite sceptical and perceptive. The classic "kids say the funniest things" routines are often founded in the ability of children to see things and make logical connections that adults have got into the habit of ignoring or overlooking. (The rest are usually just "child hasn't yet learned what it's not polite to say").

Maybe not at the age of three and a half but I think by age six the majority of children who believe in Santa do so by choice, albeit maybe not a conscious one. On some level they know it doesn't make sense, but they're willing to go along with it because they don't want to confront the alternative explanations. My parents went to absurd lengths to maintain the illusion, but they did so partly because they knew I was on some level looking for evidence of the lie.


Something I've found curious is the way that the American Santa, at least as portrayed in TV Christmas episodes and the like, differs from the Father Christmas of my youth. Both have similar characteristics but the way "Santa" is approached is somehow slightly less believable.

For instance, our Father Christmas lived in Lapland, as opposed to Santa living at the North Pole. To an alert child, "the North Pole" raises a lot of questions. Which pole, true north or magnetic north? Haven't people been to the north pole? Why didn't they see his house? Why doesn't it show up in photos of explorers there, or on Google Maps? There isn't even any land at the North Pole, just ice, etc. Lapland, by contrast, is big and vague and real enough that you can say "somewhere in Lapland, nobody knows where".

And then there's the diet. Santa - as I understand it - has milk and cookies left out for him, which is what a child would want. In our house at least, Father Christmas got a mince pie and a glass of sherry: what an adult would want. Part of that was probably for the benefit of my dad, but it also helped contribute to the image of an actual person with a mindset different to that of a child.

This is probably partly anti-American snobbery on my part, and probably also a slightt sadness at seeing my childhood traditions gradually eroded and homogenised by the flood of American media to the extent. But I do think that the modern/American Santa is a slightly more fantastic, less believable figure, less relatable and somehow less rooted in the real world. Or maybe that's just nostalgia on my part.

[Peelee]

A.) the Santa bit was a quick and easy example. There are countless others.

2.)
To an alert child, "the North Pole" raises a lot of questions. Which pole, true north or magnetic north?
That is one hell of a precocious six-year-old.

[Rockphed]

A.) the Santa bit was a quick and easy example. There are countless others.

2.)
That is one hell of a precocious six-year-old.

My six-year-old can't read a map (or read much of anything for that matter). She definitely doesn't know that there are multiple north poles.

[Spore]

I don't have children but as far as I can remember, I started making up my own stories with 5 or 6. "What if the statue came to life right now. It would be hurting." Then again, I was aware this was a narrative in my head, and while I would believe a statue coming to life was possible, I knew that I would be in trouble for wasting our medical cabinet for my game.

There is more to a kid's imagination and games than pure fantasy, I'm afraid. General upbringing, certain bans (do not touch the oven, keep away from the cleaning cabinet etc.) and general approach to hurting people (do not go near this bleeding person, help anyone in need, prevent problems, save medicine by only using it as a last resort).

Imagination runs wild until a certain age, but a 6 y/o would know to temper this. I can totally see a free-spirited child still doing this though.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And then there's the diet. Santa - as I understand it - has milk and cookies left out for him, which is what a child would want. In our house at least, Father Christmas got a mince pie and a glass of sherry: what an adult would want. Part of that was probably for the benefit of my dad, but it also helped contribute to the image of an actual person with a mindset different to that of a child.

Funny. When I was a kid, it was understood that Santa got a pot pie and a cold beer. I don't think I thought about how he got a hot meal and a cold beer until I was about six or seven.

[Durkoala]

For instance, our Father Christmas lived in Lapland, as opposed to Santa living at the North Pole. To an alert child, "the North Pole" raises a lot of questions. Which pole, true north or magnetic north? Haven't people been to the north pole? Why didn't they see his house? Why doesn't it show up in photos of explorers there, or on Google Maps? There isn't even any land at the North Pole, just ice, etc. Lapland, by contrast, is big and vague and real enough that you can say "somewhere in Lapland, nobody knows where".

I also grew up* in Britan and Father Christmas's address was frequently (but not always) said to be at the North Pole. I always assumed that people had gone there and had seen his house, but there were no photos for the same reason photos of my friends' houses weren't just lying around: you didn't take pictures of other people's houses unless you knew them.

Also, for some reason when I learned of the two poles, I was completely convinced he lived next to the stripey barber's shop true north, but I don't know why I thought that. Possibly because magnetic north moved around so nobody could build a house on it, but I'm not sure I knew about magnetic north moving then...

*possibly later than you did, as I remember hearing about both sides of the legend when I was told Christmas stories.

[Liquor Box]

I have a five year old. I think he would be just as able to tell that statue is not alive as an adult (so for a fake to be able to fool him it would also have to fool an adult), and I'm sure he'd know that putting a bandaid on it wouldn't heal it because it's not real. I don't think he is out of step with other 5 year olds in this regard.

[Cazero]

Not every six years old know enough about biology to understand that band-aid is not magical duct-tape that repairs minor cracks in what you put it on.

[tyckspoon]

Not every six years old know enough about biology to understand that band-aid is not magical duct-tape that repairs minor cracks in what you put it on.

Whereas us worldly experienced adults know this is what actual duct-tape is for.

[Peelee]

Duct tape isn't even that good a tape!

[Telonius]

My daughter listens in on our D&D sessions. At 6, she might have gotten the message that the whole party assumes every statue we encounter has about a 50% chance of coming to life and attacking us in-game. Real-world though? Nah, she was pretty clear about that sort of thing.

[farothel]

I don't think they would confuse a statue with a person, but they might but a band-aid on it. I've seen my nieces do that with their teddy bears to play, so why not a statue.
Or depending on your system, illusion or enchantment spells might get her to do it against her will.

[JNAProductions]

Just want to say this thread is very endearing. Glad to hear fun stories from parents of the Playground.

Hope everyone is well! Thanks for the smiles. :)

[The Fury]

I've had friends that are parents who have had me look after their kids.
Most of them seemed pretty bright and probably understand that statues aren't alive and band-aids wouldn't heal them. That said, some of them might like to pretend that a statue is alive and put bandaids on it.

[Strigon]

Really, it depends on your six-year-old. Like, are you asking if it's plausible that at least one six-year-old somewhere in the world would think that? Then yeah, sure. If you're asking whether an otherwise normal six-year-old would do that, it becomes less likely.

Human adults vary wildly in what they know and how they perceive the world to work. Children vary even more. I guarantee you there's a six-year-old somewhere who would make that leap. Even otherwise "smart" kids might think that way, just because of a gap in their knowledge. But I wouldn't say most of them would think that would work.

[SaintRidley]

To an alert child, "the North Pole" raises a lot of questions. Which pole, true north or magnetic north? Haven't people been to the north pole?

A question no six year old has asked in the history of ever.

[dehro]

Dude, my 3.5 year old speaks and writes in 2 languages, starting a 3rd one and knows multiplications. I know it's an extreamly bright child for her age, but still, children are not stupid. I could see a six year old doing that as part of a game, or by projecting it's imaginary frind to the statue, but it knows this stuff is made of stone. Perhaps a child with slight mental disability would be naive enough to actually confuse it for a person, but not one with average intelect.

typical 3.5 minmaxing shenanigans...


On a more serious note, context is everything.

Within the context of a game being played by a child, everything can be... A car is a car, but if you are playing out a battle then it's a fortress and climbing on top of it is entirely justified to defend your position. Same if it's home base in a game of tag and your little sister is too little to climb on top of it. The fact that by doing so you will cover it in scratches really is an issue for later. (What are you talking about? I didn't get in trouble for this as a child, you did!)..
Also, what happens when you see an archway with old plaster crumbling off of it? Well the decent thing to do would be to smoothe it out by removing the crumbly bits from the wall, right? All of them... off of the whole wall, to be sure it's nice and even.. oh.. you think your parents will notice that now the archway is of a different colour and in some places old brick is exposed? surely not!..

Now, I might not be particularly bright, and might not have been a particularly bright kid, but I was 8-9 when I did these things, either because engossed in a game or out of genuine desire to help.
So yes, within the right context, this can totally happen.
Children of age 5-6 have tea parties with their dolls and sip on nothing but air, expecting you to play along.... so whether they truly believe that you are drinking tea, are conscious you are playing along or truly believe tea manifests itself like the banquet in the movie Hook, is immaterial, you, the adult, will still be sat on a tiny chair loudly slurping down imaginary tea from a plastic cup that you have no recollection buying for your child and even less idea where it's been.

Children bend reality around them on a daily basis. Some children look at a statue and will see a statue, other will see a creature in need of help, others still will see a perfect springboard to jump in the nearby bushes from.
To go back to the manuscript, if the confusion is framed as self imposed for play purposes, as a result or way to cope with trauma, as a remnant from a previous game, a result of genuine uncertainty or a learning disability, then, sure, have at it.. if an otherwise entirely savvy and bright child who has seen the statue before, or is definitely not playing or operating under a cloud of "somebody told me it is a living creature/this is Santa's helper", then no.... because, as I said, context.

[Eldan]

I also grew up* in Britan and Father Christmas's address was frequently (but not always) said to be at the North Pole. I always assumed that people had gone there and had seen his house, but there were no photos for the same reason photos of my friends' houses weren't just lying around: you didn't take pictures of other people's houses unless you knew them.

Also, for some reason when I learned of the two poles, I was completely convinced he lived next to the stripey barber's shop true north, but I don't know why I thought that. Possibly because magnetic north moved around so nobody could build a house on it, but I'm not sure I knew about magnetic north moving then...

*possibly later than you did, as I remember hearing about both sides of the legend when I was told Christmas stories.

Interestingly, in Switzerland, we saw them as two distinct, but kind of similar figures, when I was a kid. There was the guy from TV (TV was almost entirely dubbed American TV), who we knew as "The Christmas Man" (Weihnachtsmann). He has a flying sleigh, comes on Christmas and brings gifts. He lives at the north pole with a race of kobolds who build his gifts (they arent' elves. Clearly. Elves are entirely different. Elves fly. (I think my only context for elves at that point was Peter Pan, where the version of the book I had read to me translated "fairy" as "elf".)
Then there's Santa Claus (Samichlaus), who's a different, but similar figure. Dresses a lot alike, at least. He lives "nearby in the forest" (We could go visit his cottage! It was really magical!). He comes to your house on December the Sixth, reads you a list of what you did well and what you did wrong this year and then hands you a small bag of sweets. He doesn't have a flying sleigh, he walks with a donkey or horse who carries his bag of gifts. He also doesn't have elves, he has a single grim servant in a black cloak who always threatens to beat up or abduct "bad" kids, but never does.

I remember it taking me years to really figure out that they were supposed to be the same guy.

[farothel]

Interestingly, in Switzerland, we saw them as two distinct, but kind of similar figures, when I was a kid. There was the guy from TV (TV was almost entirely dubbed American TV), who we knew as "The Christmas Man" (Weihnachtsmann). He has a flying sleigh, comes on Christmas and brings gifts. He lives at the north pole with a race of kobolds who build his gifts (they arent' elves. Clearly. Elves are entirely different. Elves fly. (I think my only context for elves at that point was Peter Pan, where the version of the book I had read to me translated "fairy" as "elf".)
Then there's Santa Claus (Samichlaus), who's a different, but similar figure. Dresses a lot alike, at least. He lives "nearby in the forest" (We could go visit his cottage! It was really magical!). He comes to your house on December the Sixth, reads you a list of what you did well and what you did wrong this year and then hands you a small bag of sweets. He doesn't have a flying sleigh, he walks with a donkey or horse who carries his bag of gifts. He also doesn't have elves, he has a single grim servant in a black cloak who always threatens to beat up or abduct "bad" kids, but never does.

I remember it taking me years to really figure out that they were supposed to be the same guy.

Actually they are not. In Belgium and the Netherlands we also have two figures. We have 'sinderklaas' (Saint Nicholas) who comes on december 6th with presents and then you have Santa Claus on Christmas (who is a lot less prevalent here).

Actually the way I've understood it is that Santa Claus is a hybridization of figures like Saint Nicholas and Grandfather Frost and some others. When immigrants moved to the US, they took their own figures with them and in the course of time a hybrid figure emerged, which is what we now know as Santa Claus.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Really, what we know of as "Santa Claus" pretty much comes from a poem by Clement Moore and a book by Baum.

[Liquor Box]

Santa Claus is a hybridization of figures like Saint Nicholas .

Isn't Santa Claus merely Saint Nicholas in Spanish?

[dehro]

Isn't Santa Claus merely Saint Nicholas in Spanish?

Nope. It comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas

[Rogar Demonblud]

Isn't Santa Claus merely Saint Nicholas in Spanish?

No, that would be San Nicolas.

[snowblizz]

Mind, all the Santa Claus, Saint Nicholaus, Sinterklaas (in name if not always as a character) are all variations of the original saint, St Nicholas who probably did not spell his name any way like that either.

THe resulting character combines probably a dozen aspects of folktraditions from various parts of (mostly I assume) Europe.

It is kinda curious to watch how some places recombine Santa into existing traditions that he in part originated from. I think the Dutch now have both a St Nicholas and Sinterklaas visiting in december just at different times?

In Finnish he is known as the "Christmas Ram" which makes no sense at all until you figure out that the modern Santa has effectively entirely replaced an older figure that IIRC is more akin to the Krampus except for retaining the old name.


I'm sure there are entire humanities departments devoted to the study of how culture travelled and changed this way.

And because I'm already randomly off track I'm gonna mention my favourite weird one, St Lucia's Day celebrated in the Swedish speaking world (it's not a big world) which really owes itself as a thing today more to early 1900s beauty pageants than anything else despite most today think it has ancient tradtions.

[DeTess]

It is kinda curious to watch how some places recombine Santa into existing traditions that he in part originated from. I think the Dutch now have both a St Nicholas and Sinterklaas visiting in december just at different times?


Pretty much, though it differs per family, of course. We get Sinterklaas the 5th of december (as well as the three weeks running up to it) and the 'Kerstman' (literally: Christmas Man) the 25th of december. The Kerstman is pretty much the American Santa Claus as far as I know.

[Kyberwulf]

I think we are missing a couple things.

First thing though is yes it is entirely reasonable. Most kids mature at different rates. SO yeah at 6 depending on a lot of things a kid think that. Who know this could be one of those things that causes the kid to develop further along.

But, what you neglect to tell us is what happen in said manuscript that causes the child to think this. I mean what would you say, if I asked, "'Is it reasonable to a child could think he could see dead people.... after watching a movie?"

I mean, within the context of the movie it is entirely possible given what goes on in that setting. So we need to know what's going on in the setting.

[Grey Watcher]

I don't know - I think this may come back to what JeenLeen said. In my experience - albeit I am not a parent so that experience is limited - children are capable of being simultaneously quite gullible but also quite sceptical and perceptive. The classic "kids say the funniest things" routines are often founded in the ability of children to see things and make logical connections that adults have got into the habit of ignoring or overlooking. (The rest are usually just "child hasn't yet learned what it's not polite to say").

Maybe not at the age of three and a half but I think by age six the majority of children who believe in Santa do so by choice, albeit maybe not a conscious one. On some level they know it doesn't make sense, but they're willing to go along with it because they don't want to confront the alternative explanations. My parents went to absurd lengths to maintain the illusion, but they did so partly because they knew I was on some level looking for evidence of the lie.


Something I've found curious is the way that the American Santa, at least as portrayed in TV Christmas episodes and the like, differs from the Father Christmas of my youth. Both have similar characteristics but the way "Santa" is approached is somehow slightly less believable.

For instance, our Father Christmas lived in Lapland, as opposed to Santa living at the North Pole. To an alert child, "the North Pole" raises a lot of questions. Which pole, true north or magnetic north? Haven't people been to the north pole? Why didn't they see his house? Why doesn't it show up in photos of explorers there, or on Google Maps? There isn't even any land at the North Pole, just ice, etc. Lapland, by contrast, is big and vague and real enough that you can say "somewhere in Lapland, nobody knows where".

And then there's the diet. Santa - as I understand it - has milk and cookies left out for him, which is what a child would want. In our house at least, Father Christmas got a mince pie and a glass of sherry: what an adult would want. Part of that was probably for the benefit of my dad, but it also helped contribute to the image of an actual person with a mindset different to that of a child.

This is probably partly anti-American snobbery on my part, and probably also a slightt sadness at seeing my childhood traditions gradually eroded and homogenised by the flood of American media to the extent. But I do think that the modern/American Santa is a slightly more fantastic, less believable figure, less relatable and somehow less rooted in the real world. Or maybe that's just nostalgia on my part.

I don't think I knew magnetic north and true north were different until I was like 10, long after I'd accepted Santa as fiction.

As for the milk and cookie diet, it depends on the degree to which you think Santa is even human. I know that the "jolly old elf" line in The Night Before Christmas is meant pretty literally. I don't know if I really understood the distinction as a little kid, but you can get away with a lot of the Santa mythos by just saying "MAGIC!"

[Rockphed]

I don't think I knew magnetic north and true north were different until I was like 10, long after I'd accepted Santa as fiction.

As for the milk and cookie diet, it depends on the degree to which you think Santa is even human. I know that the "jolly old elf" line in The Night Before Christmas is meant pretty literally. I don't know if I really understood the distinction as a little kid, but you can get away with a lot of the Santa mythos by just saying "MAGIC!"

He doesn't eat the cookies and milk, he feeds them into the back of the sleigh where they power a mr fusion style magic generator.

[Knaight]

Speaking as someone who found Santa deeply implausible as early as preschool - the logistics of the traveling were what seemed really dubious, along with the north pole thing. Milk and cookies? Apart from the sheer amount of milk and cookies consumed (a problem that is not ameliorated by going to meat pies) that made sense then and it makes sense now. I certainly didn't give up cookies on my 18th birthday, and I'm not sure I know anyone who did.

[A.A.King]

Context definitely is everything.

To add to the Santa discussion, a little. As someone who grew up in the Netherlands I strongly believed in Sinterklaas, because of all the effort that was put in to making him real. Stuff like it being big TV news when his boat arrived in the Netherlands for the first time that year all added to the illusion. Sinterklaas was definitely real until the sad day someone told me he was not.

At the same that I was believing in red-and-white bearded man that brought presents to all the Dutch children in one night I would watch american children shows that would have Santa Claus episodes and I would think: "how can anyone belief in this red-and-white bearded man that brings gifts to everyone in one night? How stupid are these children."

As a child, I never thought about just how similar the two figures were I just knew that one was clearly real and the other one stupid make belief. Part of me wants to argue that more effort gets put into making Sinterklaas feel real so it makes more sense to belief in that version, but really I think it comes down to just two factors:
1) I was told by everyone that he was real
2) He gave me presents and as someone from a poor household who knew not to expect anything extra there where really only 2 days a year I got presents: my birthday and Sinterklaas. So I probably chose to believe in him because if he stopped being real the presents might stop.

So when it comes to a 6 year old giving a statue a bandage, if the child was told it would work I could totally see them believing it, but I doubt that one would try that themselves. But then if someone asked me to come up with a scenario in which that specific instance was plausible I could come up with 1 or 2 so it really does depend on the context of the action.

[Peelee]

Speaking as someone who found Santa deeply implausible as early as preschool - the logistics of the traveling were what seemed really dubious, along with the north pole thing. Milk and cookies? Apart from the sheer amount of milk and cookies consumed (a problem that is not ameliorated by going to meat pies) that made sense then and it makes sense now. I certainly didn't give up cookies on my 18th birthday, and I'm not sure I know anyone who did.

If anything, being financially independent has only exacerbated my cookie-obtaining.

[Keltest]

If anything, being financially independent has only exacerbated my cookie-obtaining.

I know I certainly exercise my abilities as a nominal adult to engage in bad life choices like buying bags of candy or treats just because I have that power now.

[dehro]

On a sidenote.... I'd lost sight of just how many fellow Dutch people there are on this forum:smallbiggrin:

[snowblizz]

On a sidenote.... I'd lost sight of just how many fellow Dutch people there are on this forum:smallbiggrin:

Here, borrow my kitchenstep, you should be able to see them all easily that way.

[dehro]

Here, borrow my kitchenstep, you should be able to see them all easily that way.

how did you know I'm a shortarse? :smalltongue:

[snowblizz]

how did you know I'm a shortarse? :smalltongue:

I was more aiming for a "the Netherlands is really flat" joke, but in these times one can't be picky.

[Eldan]

Oh, I thought you were aiming for "the Dutch are really tall".

[Rockphed]

Oh, I thought you were aiming for "the Dutch are really tall".

That is also where my mind went. My thesis advisor is about 6 foot 6. He spent some time in the Netherlands and reported that he felt about average height, if not a little short.

[Eldan]

Average dutch height is just above six feet, and is the highest in the world, yes.

[snowblizz]

I have lot of tall friends. I'm not impressed.

And I never heard of Dutch being tall.

[Eldan]

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. On average.

[Peelee]

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. On average.

So much for keeping out secrets up high.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Eh, you're a dragon. A couple extra centimeters on the peasants polishing your claws really don't matter, do they?

[Scarlet Knight]

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. On average.


I never knew! I guess it comes from years of stretching to plug the leaks up high in the dikes.

"Alas, Hans was too short to reach the leak, the dike burst, and all the people of Smallberg were drowned. The End"

[Eldan]

I heard a similar variant of that one before, where it was implied the Dutch had to be tall to keep their head above the water until the dikes were built.

[Xuc Xac]

I’m dealing with a manuscript which has a six-year-old confusing a statue with a real person, and trying to use band-aids to heal the statue.

My question is, would this be reasonable for a six-year-old?

Absolutely not. You're talking about a kid in 1st grade. A kid that old who couldn't tell a statue was a statue and not a person would be referred to the school counselor to be evaluated mentally. They might stick bandaids on a statue to play (because stickers are fun!), but not because they genuinely believe the statue is a person. They know dolls aren't real babies but they are happy to pretend to feed them and hold them. If the statue isn't lifelike enough to fool an adult, then a normal 6 year old isn't going to think it's real either. A kid might be more sensitive to the uncanny valley effect from a creepy statue, but that's not the same thing.



From my own vague memories of childhood, and from watching my kids (not quite 6, but close), I feel like a child might think they think a band-aid would heal a person or statue, but know inwardly that it won't really. Sort of a half-conscious knowledge that they are pretending, but yet thinking it real.


I could see a 6 year old thinking a bandaid would be a good way to tape together a broken statue because you can tape broken things together and bandaids are tape made for sticking on arms and legs. I don't think any normal 6 year old would expect the statue to heal, but they might be overly optimistic about how well the bandaids would hold it together.


Does your 3.5-year-old also believe that raindeer fly a man to every child in the world in a single night? It's definitely possible for a kid 30 months older to believe a band-aid can fix a statue. Knowing languages is a completely separate thing and is not relevant here.

Kids have experience with "statues" and other artificial people in the form of dolls and other toys. They do arts and crafts projects with tape and glue and get bandaids put on their own little injuries. Very few kids have any direct reindeer experience, they are never allowed to do a close inspection of Santa's sleigh, and adults that they trust tell them very earnestly that it's true, so they accept the Santa story.

[Themrys]

Not every six years old know enough about biology to understand that band-aid is not magical duct-tape that repairs minor cracks in what you put it on.

Even many adults have a very poor grasp on biology and think modern medicine is basically DnD magic. (DnD magic, because they also think there is no price to pay apart from the financial one. Which is not the case in many other fantasy universes. And happens to not be the case with many things in modern medicine, either.)

That said, if those adults were not all too real and everywhere on the internet, I would not believe they exist.

Since six year olds are not often on the internet and therefore the extent of their foolishness is unknown, I would err on the side of intelligence when describing them.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

My wife teaches six-year-olds.
They're not going to mistake a statue for a biological being and think that it needs a bandaid.

However, some of them have very vivid imaginations and their separation of imagination and reality is not as clear as an older child's (though clearer than a younger child's). They are willing to suspend disbelief in Santa and the Tooth Fairy. When playing with a doll that has a rip in it, they may insist to an adult that the doll needs a bandaid, even to the point of tears.

So, they might half-persuade themselves that a statue could benefit from a bandaid after wandering around in the woods, distressed, wondering why they have found a statue, and not knowing what else to do. After spending some time with no adults around and nobody but a statue to look to for help, they may anthropomorphize the statue and think (but not in so many words), "I don't really believe this band-aid will help, but I will pretend, because I don't know what else to do..."

I mean, even Tom Hanks drew a face on a volleyball... people start acting strangely when they are desperate.

Even so, I think six is at the upper range for this. I can more easily picture my precocious 3 year old acting this way.

[Marillion]

My daughter turns six in a couple months, and I could definitely see her sticking band-aids on a cracked statue. If I asked her why, though, the conversation would probably go something like this.

Me: "So uhhhh, what ya doing there?"
Her: "I'm putting band-aids on his boo-boo."
Me: "Do you think that'll help?"
Her: "Yeah. I'm just pretending, though."
Me: "You're pretending?"
Her: "Yeah, he's not really hurt, I'm just PRETENDING he is though, so I put band-aids on him so he feels better."

She'd say that last part with about the same tone my boss would use sometimes with employees who ask 18 times how to perform a simple task even after 6 months of doing the same thing every day. A tone that says "I like you and everything, I'm trying not to be rude, but how are you not getting this still?"

She's got a very vivid imagination, but clearly distinguishes between fact and fantasy. I think most kids that age are the same way, even though they may not verbalize it when asked like she does.