"It must be awful at their house."
"It's awful in there!" says Alice from The Archers about her parents' house after the arrival of her four year-old half brother.
The title quote was by pub landlady Jolene, and quite a few other Ambridge residents have expressed similar sentiments. Not one person has said anything positive about the pleasure of this little boy's company, purely by virtue of his age, as far as I can tell.
The consistent message is: living with young children is horrible.
This is a complete lie in my experience, which causes no end of problems.
What is it about four year-olds that's difficult? They're usually expressionful, enthusiastic, entertaining and good fun. They live in the here-and-now and are refreshingly honest and fascinatingly interested in life and in learning. I love the kind of questions they ask as they try to work the world out, and yes - they will reflect any duplicity, fear or contrivance right back at the people involved. Maybe that's why they're so unpopular in certain circles.
But if you're straight and respectful with them, they're no trouble whatsoever.
The title quote was by pub landlady Jolene, and quite a few other Ambridge residents have expressed similar sentiments. Not one person has said anything positive about the pleasure of this little boy's company, purely by virtue of his age, as far as I can tell.
The consistent message is: living with young children is horrible.
This is a complete lie in my experience, which causes no end of problems.
What is it about four year-olds that's difficult? They're usually expressionful, enthusiastic, entertaining and good fun. They live in the here-and-now and are refreshingly honest and fascinatingly interested in life and in learning. I love the kind of questions they ask as they try to work the world out, and yes - they will reflect any duplicity, fear or contrivance right back at the people involved. Maybe that's why they're so unpopular in certain circles.
But if you're straight and respectful with them, they're no trouble whatsoever.
posted by Gill at
2:10 PM
8 Comments:
I find that kind of age a real challenge, I much prefer under-2 and older-than-8-ish. Think that might be because that's when things were particularly difficult for me, and I just want it all to Go Away.
Ah yes, could be. I've heard other people say similar.
Lyddie can exhibit challenging behaviour sometimes, but then I start getting interested in working out why, and she's invariably reacting against something, or processing something in her mind that happened earlier.
Interesting! I interpreted Jolene’s comment as meaning things must be “awful” because Alice wasn’t talking to her parents and had moved in with her friend rather than be at home. As supposed to things being awful because of Ruiri settling in. Then again my two little ones are a joy to be with, whereas I was a pretty obnoxious teenager, so maybe that’s coloured my view!
I think that there must be negative things about all ages of child...but there are usually enough positive things to outweigh them. For instance, 2.5yr olds (in my experience of two of them) can be such a difficult age of child to care for - there are so many frustrations for them and life can be so hard for them to navigate that meltdowns are more common than at other ages. On the other hand, it's such an amazing age - they're learning things at such a rate...becoming more verbal and understanding. They are hilariously funny and cute and also wonderfully kind and thoughtful. It more than makes up for the frustrations!
Hm, I would like to think that I've been straight and respectful with all my children, but I cannot claim that my now-5yo has been "no trouble whatsoever" at any time in the last year or two!
Depends on your definition of trouble I suppose, Deb.
am still finding this kind of age a real challenge...
Why Trog? What's happening that you find challenging?
Lyddie's fine to be with, as long as I stop what I'm doing and give her time and attention when she needs it.
She's doing a lot of conflict-provoking with me and her siblings but I'm just trying to work out why. Meanwhile we're trying not to react to it, which keeps it to the minimum I think.
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