Being a boy

[flashpig]

I remember being told by my mother that if I pulled silly faces and the wind changed I would stick like it. So of course I did it all the time, and talking about it with my friends so did they.

When I was on holiday once I talked to someone who apparently worked on a submarine and said that if you swam deep enough and came back up your lungs would explode, so myself and friends spent ages in the pool over summer swimming to the bottom, staying down as long as we could so the air would compress or whatever then bobbing back up to the top to see if anything happened.

Is it genetic or social that children want to do just really stupid things? I wouldn't want to burst my lungs now, or be stuck with my face all scrunched up wih my toungue hanging out, so why the desire when I was younger?

[Rystan]

I think the answer is probably that even as a child, you know that certain things you're told are far too ridiculous to be true. Yet, you lack the experience or mental faculties to disprove them logically, so you field test them to prove yourself right in thinking they're ridiculous.

But to answer your question more completely, children can predictably react certain ways to certain stimuli. Some of these are genetic; for example, most little boys will move to block or kick away an incoming soccer (foot)ball, most little girls will move to cover themselves or duck. Some are developmental; most children enter a stage where they refuse to try new foods. Then there are experiential reactions, and without an appropriate framework for understanding (and children lack them for a wide range of circumstances), they are prone to do almost anything. For example, as an adult, you know full well that a German Shepard lying behind a chain link fence is not to be toyed with, but all an inexperienced child is likely to know is that it's a "doggie," and doggies are fluffy and fun to play with. Doing so would obviously be ill-advised, but only if you know enough of the world to know that most likely, that's a guard dog that will eat your face if you approach it.

Hope that helps.

[blueeyedlass]

ha ha ha that gave me quite a laugh reading that !!!!

[richb14]

Being 14 myself i can remeber really well stuff like this. I did it just to pee my mum/nan off lol. I think its cause your a child and think that you dont have to obey the rules and its also funny (when your a lil kiddy) when your parents get realy stressed cause then you've got a reaction for all your hard work. Rich