Ten year olds are not toddlers!

[CountVanBadger]

I'm listening to The Mark of the Fool by JM Clarke right now. It's a pretty good book so far, but something about it is bugging me, and it's something that's bugged for a while.

Do authors think ten year olds are toddlers?

I can't tell you how many books I've read, shows I've watched, games I've played, etc. that's featured a kid around ten years old or so, but if you were to judge them based on how they talk and act, you'd think they were three years old. Like in Mark of the Fool, the main character (a magic user with virtually no muscle) is constantly carrying her around while they hike through the countryside. He talks to her like she won't understand him if he uses words with more than two syllables, and the way she talks back to him makes it sound like he's right to think that.

If you want to have a little kid in your cast, that's fine. But why can't people just, you know, write a little kid into their story? Why do they always have to make them older kids with the mentality of a little kid?

 

[tiaf]

Guess those authors don't know actual kids. Carrying a 10 year old no matter how skinny is some herculean task. 10 years is usually when the first big growth spurt come and they shoot up in height.

 

[CountVanBadger]

Guess those authors don't know actual kids. Carrying a 10 year old no matter how skinny is some herculean task. 10 years is usually when the first big growth spurt come and they shoot up in height.

And I've never met a ten year old that would be okay with a nickname like "little goblin." They're firmly in the "stop calling me little!" phase by that point.

 

[tiaf]

And I've never met a ten year old that would be okay with a nickname like "little goblin." They're firmly in the "stop calling me little!" phase by that point.

depends, I would call my younger sibling lovingly "little monster" then tickle attack them and run away

the youngest of us siblings would accept the title with sass and use us older ones as payment method or as excuse to not do chores more often than defy the title (still does and will keep on doing it)

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I'm listening to The Mark of the Fool by JM Clarke right now. It's a pretty good book so far, but something about it is bugging me, and it's something that's bugged for a while.

Do authors think ten year olds are toddlers?

I can't tell you how many books I've read, shows I've watched, games I've played, etc. that's featured a kid around ten years old or so, but if you were to judge them based on how they talk and act, you'd think they were three years old. Like in Mark of the Fool, the main character (a magic user with virtually no muscle) is constantly carrying her around while they hike through the countryside. He talks to her like she won't understand him if he uses words with more than two syllables, and the way she talks back to him makes it sound like he's right to think that.

If you want to have a little kid in your cast, that's fine. But why can't people just, you know, write a little kid into their story? Why do they always have to make them older kids with the mentality of a little kid?

That is so true. Though, the last story I read was about a literal 20-year-old that was treated like a toddler, so I think that's kind of refreshing by comparison.

But yeah, I'm with @tiaf in that they likely just don't know any better. Then again, research works wonders. Children are stupid, that shouldn't be ignored, even if they are 10, but at the same time, one shouldn't forget that they already go to school and have their own intentions.

 

[Piisfun]

That is so true. Though, the last story I read was about a literal 20-year-old that was treated like a toddler, so I think that's kind of refreshing by comparison.

But yeah, I'm with @tiaf in that they likely just don't know any better. Then again, research works wonders. Children are stupid, that shouldn't be ignored, even if they are 10, but at the same time, one shouldn't forget that they already go to school and have their own intentions.

I don't know, I've come across 10-year-olds who can read better than the average 18-year-old.
Gullible? Maybe.
Stupid? No.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I don't know, I've come across 10-year-olds who can read better than the average 18-year-old.
Gullible? Maybe.
Stupid? No.

That depends on the person. "Children are stupid" generally means that children are children. The 18-year-old in question either devolved or was likely worse in their reading at the age of ten. And they were likely not better than an 18-year-old.
Conversely, an 18-year-old should not actually be worse at reading than a 10-year-old, because they are older, more experienced and their brain more developed, unless the older one is specifically lacking or the younger one is especially well-developed. Both are exceptions to their respective rules.

 

[Lmae]

In the past a 10 year old would be learning a trade by doing grunt work, like running errands, scrubbing floors, feeding animals, collecting firewood, ect.
Nowadays, a 10 year old should be able to read and understand Harry Potter and other middle grade books. They should be able to write a simple report, share their ideas in a presentation, write a poem, and perform in a play. They can count money and buy stuff.

They are gullible, but some know how to lie, cheat, steal and manipulate. They might not be good at it but they know how.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

That is so true. Though, the last story I read was about a literal 20-year-old that was treated like a toddler, so I think that's kind of refreshing by comparison.

But yeah, I'm with @tiaf in that they likely just don't know any better. Then again, research works wonders. Children are stupid, that shouldn't be ignored, even if they are 10, but at the same time, one shouldn't forget that they already go to school and have their own intentions.

SIMPLE not STUPID.

Understanding that difference is what made The Incredible Hulk a compelling character in his older stories (he is not stupid, but he has the intellect of a child... but the power of a god); more recent ones found ways to balance his character out or even let Banner be in control, but with moments of rage taking over, but the good older ones depicted him as simple, but not stupid.
Heck, another example would be the old TV series Get Smart! - Maxwell Smart is not stupid (though the writers of the two novelizations I've found missed this entirely... the writers of the actual SHOW understood though, and even introduced a character who truly WAS stupid, Larabee, to showcase the difference), but he is a bit of a simpleton, despite this - and sometimes the funniest moments come from this dichotomy.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

SIMPLE not STUPID

Same difference.
You could argue that some adults are simple and not stupid. Some stupid people are smart in the weirdest ways as well.
When I said they had their own intentions and already go to school, I accounted for things like reading, writing, and even performing in plays and holding presentations. Their own intentions may even be lying and manipulating.
But they won't excell at it, because their brain is still in development and that makes them stupid - I don't really care what you wish to call it, but that stands as a fact. Because if we didn't expect them to fall behind, why would we bother comparing or mentioning it in the first place? We would just treat them as adults. But they are not.
Obviously, I'm not saying they are specifically stupid, otherwise, I wouldn't generalize it. Not every person in the world is stupid, but every person in the world was a child once. Therefore, I can't mean regular stupidity, but a general lacking intelligence depending on the age, experience and general development. At age 10, you're capable of existing on your own, but that doesn't mean much.
You cannot portray a 10-year-old the way you portray an adult, even if they had to mature faster, because they simply won't understand the world the way you do; they can't. You have to account for not just "simplicity", but simply the lack of knowledge and understanding.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Same difference.

No, they are quite different. The whole "idiot savant" concept is proof - people who are absolute geniuses in one or two areas, but functional morons in every other area.
Stupid implies an inability to learn, whether or not they've had an opportunity (i.e. they may be organically or willfully ignorant).
Simple is just someone who has not had the chance to learn (or has had their learning stripped from them, through amnesia, drugs, brain damage or magic). A simple person is capable of grasping some very complex subjects (though they may "translate" them into simpler ones, consciously or not, to truly grasp them), but has not been shown many, and can be edicuated.

You cannot portray a 10-year-old the way you portray an adult, even if they had to mature faster, because they simply won't understand the world the way you do; they can't.

I can cite some real-world examples to disprove this, but they are very rare exceptions (such as author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who started writing an astronomy column for a weekly newspaper when he was ten) and not the norm.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

I think a large part of this is having no experience with children, or experience only with twerps.

I have nephews/nieces from two sides of family. My sister's kids are raised somewhat strictly, but seem to be developing young adults at 11 or 13. My brother raises kids who are athletic I guess, but entitled and slightly neglected. I wouldn't expect these kids to be able to feed a cat, much less cook a meal for themselves.

Tamashii was nine when I wrote Oracle of Tao. Her age was all over the place in In The Moment, before her mom Ambrosia straight up had an identity fracture. There's an absurd opposite extreme, where Ambrosia wants to be sure she's ready and gets her to fight monsters.

 

[Sunsetinapainting]

Sometimes it's written like that for reasons like. When the some one close to them wants to take them on an adventure you can't really do that successfully with a 3yrs old. They will start making a fuss as soon as you cross the door with the. I'm speaking from experience and it's not like we were going somewhere far Just to end of the street and back but no as far as her mom isn't coming with me she's not going either

 

[Corty]

I think it's an issue of forgetting how we all were at that age. Many do. And then they don't know anymore what it was like to be at that age and think that from age 2 to 14 is the same thing.

 

[CountVanBadger]

When the some one close to them wants to take them on an adventure you can't really do that successfully with a 3yrs old. They will start making a fuss as soon as you cross the door with the.

You can't take a three year old on an adventure because they'll make a fuss, so instead you say they're ten years old but still make them think and act like a three year old?

 

[KennyCelican]

Honestly they might be past the ‘stop calling me little’ phase by ten.

It‘s something I’ve noticed, an ongoing infantilization of successive generations. Younger Millennials are considered ‘kids’, even though they’re thirty now. People call eighteen year olds ‘babies’ unironically.

But yeah, a lot of authors don’t seem to understand ages and stages. Dunno if they’re not parents or what.

Of course one explanation in fantasy are races that don’t mature as fast, but even there they’re not likely to remain toddlers for decades.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

I had a ten year old in my writing recently, but I made her seem younger than ten, as she had been on the run, or living in a cage for the last three years before my MC had rescued her mother, then her a couple days later. I considered it stunted emotional growth, but I may have made her more like a 4-5 year old instead of a 7-8 year old which she would probably be at socially.

When she returns to the writing later on, I hope to have some growth with the character, maybe even (after some significant time has passed) get some early teenage attitude start showing up.

 

[Corty]

I don't get the excuse of why anyone would portray a 3-year-old as a 10-year-old acting like a 3-year-old. Makes no sense.

 

[Playerkartik]

As far as I know toddlers should be upto age 3 years or until the kid starts walking...

 

[JayMark]

I have an eight year old character who is more mature (mentally) than many adults in some ways but very much still a kid.