I have read several books lately with prominent children characters and they have all felt a little unrealistic, which seems to be fairly common in literature. The children are either too oblivious and/or dumb (Boy in the Striped Pajamas) or to perfect (Little Men). It seems weird that writing accurate children is such a common problem considering all authors were children at some point. So here are a couple of suppositions admit why I think children might be difficult to write.
There seems to be something about the human mind that has a hard time remembering what it was like to not remember or understand certain things. It's one thing to remember when you learned something but quite another to remember what it felt like. I remember staying up late pondering and pondering how my parents could be named Mommy and Daddy as well as have other real names. Thank goodness for my brother's friend who had the same name as my father, that was my break through. Despite remembering this though I have no idea how I would portray this realization in a first point of view of a child and not make myself sound really dumb.
Plus children develop so quickly that unless you are frequently around them it is difficult to gauge whether a child character is acting age appropriately. Once I wrote about a 4 year old "tottering" around. I was quickly advised that 2 year olds totter, 4 year olds run.
It impresses me all the more when you come across an author who accurately portrays children, and even more impressed when the children grow up accurately.
