Many a parent who is mild-mannered gets a shock when their child is not. They are flummoxed as to why their polite and considerate home environment is not reflected in their child’s behaviour. Despite all efforts to communicate good-naturedly, their child is just not getting it.
But we could turn this on its head and ask, ‘Why should they?’ An environment laden with books does not necessarily produce a child who has no trouble reading. The behaviour of young children is not all down to their environment. Some of it is simply about being a child.
Susan Isaacs, psychoanalyst and teacher, was under no illusions about the young child’s emotional turbulence. We have only to look at some of the titles in her Nursery World columns in the 1930s: ‘Two Year Olds Are Often Cruel’ and ‘The Destructive Child’.
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