Turkish Thoughts: Childcare on holiday

I am on holiday with Judith Rich Harris.

Shes not here, of course. She rarely leaves her house in New Jersey. And her books aren't here either - she has only written two and I've read both of them, sadly.

But the children are here and I can't help observing them through the spectacles Harris has provided me.

In The Nurture Assumption, Harris argues that children are made who they are primarily by their peers not their parents. The moment they are independently able they crave the company of their peers because they can teach them how to behave.

One of the reason we - or indeed anybody here - goes on a Sunsail holıday is because of the childcare. The kids clubs are famously good. But while parents miss their kids, running off to the clubs, and may even feel a little guilty, the children don't see this at all.

They behave just as Harris would expect. They run off to the clubs and spend as much time there as they can. They bond wıth a small group of other children within hours, even though these children are complete strangers to them. And they become proud of the identity of their club - Gybers, Urchins or whatever - even though these are commercial constructs wıth no other connection wıth them.

It's textbook stuff. Fascinating.

-- Club Javelin, Turkey