Child of our Time BBC 1

Did they know the kids in the photos beforehand?

No, they didn't. They also said that an action man wearing a pink dress was a girl and a barbie with trousers and short hair was a boy. Clearly five year olds haven't got much sussed yet.

did the kids in the photos all have the same kind of facial expression?

I felt so sorry for the mum who was being hounded by her ex. Felt even sorrier for her kids. She seemed to stay pretty upbeat about it all in front of her children though and despite them and their surroundings being manky, I couldn't slate her.

x-post the kids in the photos were all smiling happy wee darlings

I am so sick of the conservatism of 5 year olds, when will they abandon their rigid world of gender norms and concrete sexual orientations in favour of a laissez faire wonderland of wants and dreams!

I mean jesus, you walk into the average playschool and a fucking duck is what passes for art. A duck! is that supposed to move and disrupt me? Sickening.

i love you ronan.

in other news, tonight's programme features 5 year olds playing video games sat on their fat lardy arses.

such a cynical approach to entertainment, "sit me down and put on a video game"!!!!

On a slightly different note, they are selling pinatas in our local supermarket, these are a fairly new phenomena here in scotland. I was describing what I know of them to my boss who was having a party for her sons 8th birthday. I told her that kids get blindfolded and hammer fuck out the pinata with sticks. "Oooh," says she, "that sounds like a great idea, my boy would love it"

However, they were all mighty disappointed, these ones don't involve sticks or battering fuck out of anything, in order to 'prevent injury' these nu-wave pinatas have several ribbons attached. Only one ribbon will release the goodies.

Now how pish is that?

can you not hit them with sticks anyway?

Hmm, I don't know. I suppose you can hit anything with a stick.

SMALL CHILDREN SINGING ALONG TO BUSTED!!!

also, more small children recognise charlie from busted than anyone else famous apart from the tweenies...

none of them recognised tony blair.

"Grandpa!"

And one on seeing Victoria Beckham -

"Mummy!"

Bah, I missed it last night by going to bed for some reading. It's on at 10.35pm here, compared to a much more civilised 9pm in other bits of the country.

Missed the programme, but sounds like a re-run of quite a few psychological studies, starting in about the '30s (the one I know best is the Hraba & Grant one from 1970). There was a massive leap upwards from the first study to H & G's of the percentage of children who would identify black dolls as 'nice' or not mean, anyway, but still, even among black children, the white dolls were consistently winning over about 50%. As any fule no, the fact that this remains the case today means that 'political correctness gone mad' or positive discrimination (etc etc) has not gone nearly far enough.

Having said that, I wonder what would have happened if they had also had green or blue dolls on offer (wouldn't work for the photos, I guess, although there's always tinting).

pretty damn comprehensive website here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/tv_and_radio/child_of_our_time/progguide_index.shtml

i didn't realise until last night that they are doing this every year until they are TWENTY! it's like "up yours apted, every seven years? RUBBISH MATE"

Apted's premise was that old Jesuit maxim. Winston's is "Give me the child at one and I'll show you it again at two if you wait a bit."

I didn't see the show but PB did and pointed out that the one black kid who selected the photo of the black child as the "nice one" was the one being taught by his mum to understand his racial history.