@Nyzahnewton
After my little brother was born watching him grow made me realize just how much personality children actually have. Your personality doesn’t just “form” later it’s already there, just developing. That’s why it frustrates me when media portrays kids as one-dimensional brats.
@Justaquest123
in my book I added a 7-year-old child who is completely nonverbal and isolated after being in a horrible situation, he sees his only family dead in front of him (his sister) and he doesn't do anything. He looks at my protagonist who cries before he does, THEN he cries too. Children look to adults for validation and how to react to situations.
@anikbrinckerhoff1037
It's funny while I occasionally see a child who acts too adult for their age, I more often see the opposite problem where a child acts, thinks and talks like one way younger. For me the dividing point is 7 years old +, while I'm sure there is variance in individual development, that's the point where I clearly remember an increase in complexity of my thoughts and being able to think abstractly and philosophically, and seeing kids that age or older who think as simplistically as a 5 year old is often immersion-breaking. So a lot of this advice while very important for children of a certain age could cause problems if applied unthinkingly to an older child.
@grandgojira5485
Another problem is HAVING a kid in the story at all. A lot of stories don't feel like they should have a child chatacter at all. It just feels like a "jingle, jingle, the stakes are higher" card.
@killianmcclellan285
the 2nd point- a child that’s “extremely well behaved” is probably being abused to some extent by overly strict parents. if that’s your point, make sure that you show other things such as high anxiety/hypervigilance, being quick to let others get their way even when it’s detrimental, etc.
@IrisRanelle1328
2:56 I feel like this can be done really well also, for example lilo, in lilo and stitch spends a lot of the movie misbehaving but both her parents just died she isn’t always like this
@Channel_Theory
To be fair to some writers, after a certain age and with consistent discipline, it’s completely reasonable for a child to go to bed when told to. Some of it depends on temperament, and some kids might fight you every time, but in my experience, it’s not that complicated to get them to go along with the bedtime routine. (Note that I said it wasn’t complicated, not that it wasn’t hard.)
@ChronosChristianAeon
Hello! Gifted kid talking. Not diagnosed, but... even psychologists says I'm gifted, so... I have three very funny stories of mine to share! 1 - Numbers and Maths. Recently, I and my Mom found out a few old videos/photos of mine in her phone, and one of them was me singing and then picking up a toys (kind of like an interactive non elrtric board) and counting the shapes I drew in it. When my mom asked my to blow a kiss, I blew three - one for me, one for her, one for my grandma who was nearby. I printed three hearts with the interactive stamps on the board and then three stars below. Counted all - six. Even before that part, I had said my Mom to pull an imaginary lever 12 times and counted to 12 flawlessly (even repeated 11 and 12 just to make sure). I was 2. Another funny story with numbers is that I discovered negative numbers by asking my Mom one day "Mommy, is there more less than 0?" to which she replied "Are you talking about negative numbers? Yes. There are numbers below 0." and I hadn't even entered kindergarten. 2 - Connections and Interactions. I used to info dump on people. I still do. I'd approach a guy with a kid my age and info dump ALL stuff just because I thought "Has a kid my age - must be nice." I'd do that on stores, anywhere. It was easy to approach people. However, as I began to stand out at school, I stopped making friends and the friends I did feel more like 'people I know' than friends. I enjoy solitude, but don't like feeling utterly alone. And I'm always alone at my school. I hate it. Kids my age either bully me or they're nerds like me and don't know how to socialize either. That's why I prefer to stick to adults. Way more logical, mature, wiser and nicer. They're also easier to strike conversation, when willing to, somehow. 3 - Behaviour and Society. I've already talked about how I stand out in school. But even outside school I stand out. I'm polite. I enjoy giving my neighbours a "Good day!" when I pass by them. Once, not even long ago, I was with my mom and she commented on a lemon tree with some really nice lemons. I told the neighbours "My Mom says your lemons look nice! They're shinny and big and they're expensive too!". They smiled, striked a small conversation and now my Mom and I have free lemons, if we want! My Mom and her boyfriend are only dating because my 7-y-o brain found out he had cats and was like "I LOVE CATS! LET ME SEE THEM!" and his father, a friend of my grandmother, took me to see them at his home. They weren't there, and my Mom got pissed at my grandma for letting me go alone with a stranger. I felt guilty. Well, I don't know HOW THE HELL LIFE TURNED, but now they're dating for almost 7 years. Also, when they started dating my grandma got a dog and I felt left out and demotivated. My perfect grades even dropped! (I did my media to my tests - loved doing the media, hated getting 70% (The grade only showed "Good" bc I was in 3RD GRADE)) Does society accept me? Probably not. Do I care nowadays? Not much. Am I an outcast? Yup. Am I happy with being an nerd? At all. Do I have do deal with it? Every single day of my life. Bye! ^w^ 7:00 Nice that by 7 min you said "7 year old" + I was once a 7 y-o and am still named Mary. Yay :D
@Nomis_le_cactus
1:05 I know a tv show with a character who's like 4 or 5 years old and he act like an adult, talk like an adult, take care of his dog and himself alone, own the main character's house and a lot of other things you're not supposed to do as a kid. Every adult around him is conscious of his situation and no one is there for him (his mom is in a sort of coma and she's his only parent), he work more than all the adults and go to school too. No one cares. At one moment he has a breakdown and ask "why is no adult hepling me? Why do everyone act like it's normal? I'm a child!" I really love this character and it's a really interesting concept The show is Bee and Puppycat (on Netflix and the pilot is on Youtube)
@johnrainsman6650
Making embarrassing mistakes when writing child characters is bad, but imagine assuming a child was someone's GRANDDAUGHTER. There was this jazz swing dance at this old-fashion library (in the basement). LOTS of elderly people were there, and I was there with my grandparents and great aunt. This woman who was probably 50 or so was with this little girl, who I think was three. I felt certain they were related, because of their matching hair color, eyes, and hawk noses. I assumed she was the girl's grandma because I didn't believe she could be the mom (and again, we were in a place of old people and grandparents). As they were leaving, I noticed a doll below their previous table and I brought it to them and said, "Oh, excuse me, I think your granddaughter dropped this." The woman looked at me weirdly and said, "She's my daughter." I have GOT to learn to stop speaking impulsively and acting on my assumptions.
@Reliccontent
0:16 i’m gonna write them like they live in berserk 🙏
@rosettethedragon6120
One of my favorite child characters in media is Olivia Flaversham. She doesn’t get an incredible amount of screen time, but what she does get is done very well. She’s naïve and playful like any child would be, but she isn’t stupid or obnoxious. She has a sense of reason. I also love how when she’s kidnapped she’s always trying to get out in any way she knows how. It’s unsuccessful, but she at least tries. And because she’s written so well you actually care about her being rescued.
@M0ldy-Flowerz
Something i noticed with kids it that they always find one sort of filler word and use it constantly. My wee sis used to add 'also' at the end and start of every sentence. Some who want to seem a little smart will even find a bigger word to interlace with all the small ones they know. I used to use 'particularly' WAY too often as a kid cause i thought it made me sound clever. Not when you use it every other sentence, little me...
@ADayintheLifeoftheTw
Southpark, Gumball, Gravity Falls, and a specific anime/manga named Barakamon. All of them for the first few seasons. It is absolutely a perfect representation of kids being a mixture of mature, assholish, goofy, and absolutely naive with a sense of imagination. Source, I've worked with preschool through college aged kids for 15 years and counting, while having raised 4 of my own.
@Superhero_and_co-f4o
3:32 I knew you were going to mention Sheldon Cooper
@e.tthehuman7222
This has been super helpful. I am writing a sci-fi dystopian and I am going to include a few children from widely different ages and this has helped me figure out how to break them down to make them all fleshed out since I really need readers to enjoy being around these kids, they come up quite a bit by the time they are introduced.
@BlueSonicBros
This is how Bluey writes the kids they are believable because the writer Joe Brumm made episodes after his own experience having his kids
@Robinique
I think an interesting thing to see more often with the "Spoiled Kid" archetype is a kid who's spoiled by their parents, but they dont actually want any of the toys. For example, when i was younger my parents would get me a bunch of toys and things to play with. Stuff they didn't have growing up. Yet i never directly wanted a lot of them. Apparently, from what they told me, i would often tell them that they shouldn't get me a toy because i probably won't play with it. I dont see it often when i read, and i think it would be a very interesting dynamic to explore in more stuff. (Especially in the gifted kid area)
@kitsunemusicisfire
11:12 isnt that a pretty good way to get on a watchlist?
@imaginepageant