I just Frontlined the cat.

It took a minute to shake the idea that you'd forced the cat to watch hours of PBS documentaries.

In one of the nefarious ways eBay gets me to spend money, "view sellers' other auctions" led me to this amazing hat [link] which led me to more hats [link]

The children don't consciously want the parent to believe that they're wet or hungry or whatever, they just know that crying will bring attention.

How do we know they don't want the parents to believe they're not okay? There's the problem with studying the pre-verbal. The difference between "mom comes when I cry" and "mom comes when I complain about a wet diaper" is wafer thin.

The difference between "mom comes when I cry" and "mom comes when I complain about a wet diaper" is wafer thin.

right, which is why I have a problem with the researcher calling it "deception"

I like to assume they know something I don't, but stranger things have happened.

Mainstream articles about scientific studies are too often wack.

Paging Trudy:

Yesterday I wore my Hello Kitty necklace (which is just redonkulously cute) and hung out with a 5-year-old girl. At one point, she said, "I LOVE YOU HELLO KITTY!" and kissed my necklace like 5 times! Just thought you'd like to know that the younger generations are carrying on the HK love.

Babies cry and/or whine when they are unhappy, because they don't have the words to explain their unhappiness and ask for what they want. They can be unhappy because they're in pain, hungry, not feeling well, wet, poopy, tired, hot, cold, lonely, or just having a bad day. Their cries differ. Most parents know the difference between their cries after a while. I don't think it's intentional deception so much as using communication that's proven effective.

On the other hand, there were lots of times my kids were doing the bored or lonely cry that I responded with, "Oh, you big faker." But I went to them anyhow, because they were mine, and cute, and smart enough to let me know they were pissed off, and because I wanted the noise to stop.

Totally new topic. I've missed the last 1812 posts in Boxed Set. I've just watched Supernatural season 1. I want to catch up with Boxed set, and can usually avoid spoiler in plain sight if I set my mind to it. I'm just wondering -- what has everyone been talking about. If it's mostly season 2 Supernatural and Dr. Who, I'll just skip to the end.

I'd have to read the study (because ita is so right about the wack), but my first reaction is that it isn't deceptive behavior per se when kids pretend to cry or to cough or whatever to get a parental reaction. It's discovering how things work. Even when young toddlers actually LIE to you, they aren't really lying most of the time (by which I mean they aren't trying to deliberately deceive you), most of the time they are playing.

Sure, maybe those behaviors later map out into actions like lying, but they also map out into things like learning how to comfort, how to reach out for love and affection, how to recognize truthful vs deceptive behaviors in others, etc. Even more basic than that: they are still in the realm of learning how to (and how much to) trust their caregivers.

I just went in for a second at the very end and was spoiled for a little thing in the 4400 and a teeny bit of Doctor Who season 3. So, back out again, but I'm not good at not seeing things I don't want to see.

On the other hand, there were lots of times my kids were doing the bored or lonely cry that I responded with, "Oh, you big faker." But I went to them anyhow, because they were mine, and cute, and smart enough to let me know they were pissed off, and because I wanted the noise to stop.

Which is EXACTLY what I meant about learning that they can place their trust in the their caregivers.