There are a few reasons why you should at least give The Secret Life of Kids on USA a try. One is that it’s likely to just be flat out cute since it has to do with 5-year old children that are experiencing what it’s like to engage in a social activity with some surprises thrown in to get the desired reaction from them that researchers are looking for. A lot of us might still remember what it was like to be a kid and to be around other kids. How we reacted usually told the other kids a lot about us and whether or not we were worth hanging around. At the age of 5 there are still not a lot of preconceived notions about people that children will pick up on, meaning that hating someone because of who they are, being uneasy about another person, or harboring any ill will towards anyone is not yet hardwired into their person. At the age of 5 kids are still innocent and are still going to react to their surroundings in a way that feels most natural to them.
That’s the wonder of kids, but it’s also the one major problem with this show. Go on and watch it because it should be entertaining and it should be something that can give parents a little bit of insight on how to better understand their own kids. But take it with a grain of salt since the settings and situations are going to be manipulated by the researchers so that they can gather data on how the kids react. There’s nothing unethical about it really since it’s a non-threatening and comfortable setting for the kids that promotes social activities and learning. But just keep in mind that the setting isn’t as natural as it could be and is geared more towards seeing how the kids react when their environment is manipulated rather than how they would react to a setting that they control.
It should still be something fun to watch and informative enough that it’s worth the effort. Kids after all are very different when adults are not around and tend to have their own personalities that come out when their parents aren’t watching. Some kids don’t ever turn this kind of thing off, though it’s very natural for them to do so as their exuberance is sometimes a thing that they reserve for themselves and no one else. It’s kind of a secret life that kids get to experience all on their own that adults aren’t allowed to know about, a different world in which they can be the boss, the star, or even the narrator of their own story. When they’re with other kids some children tend to reign back on this as well, but many of them might allow their narrative to join with another child’s in order to see what might become if it.
Kids learn in ways that we as adults have kind of forgotten at times, and in truth it’s a much more liberating manner than we tend to use as we grow older and conform to society and its rules.
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