Your help needed

[deelaundry]

A question for people who are familiar with one-year-olds:

Would it be possible for a bright 14-month-old who has advanced verbal skills to insist on a particular Halloween costume, before said costume was purchased?


(This may or may not have something to do with a teeny tiny ficlet.)

Second question: Add an illness/injury component so as to be able to submit this for a paricular challenge, or not? Keep in mind I don't have a plot so much as an idea.

Comments

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I'd think so; a bright 14-month-old could point at the costume and say "That" or "That one," and say "No" to other costumes offered.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! Thanks!

PS. Hee, bunnies. : )

[alex51324.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I was going to say no, because I was imagining the 14-month-old describing the costume extempore and insisting on it, but if the costume was in front of them, it's within the realm of possibility.

For what it's worth, this is the first year my niece has had a strong opinion about her Halloween costume, and she's about three. Her younger sister would have been in the neighborhood of 14 months last Halloween, and don't think she had the first clue what was even going on. This year she is clear on the concept of candy, but the whole costume thing is still pretty vague. My sister couldn't get her to pick what she wanted--older niece picked for her, and she went along with it. But kids do vary, and they definitely can have strong opinions at that age, so I would buy a strong costume opinion as long as it was based on actually seeing the costume in the flesh, not on the abstract idea, "I want to be a robot" or whatever.

I would be a little concerned about attention span. I'd have trouble buying a 14-m-o, say, seeing the Desired Costume at a store and still remembering it clearly enough to insist upon it and refuse other costumes, say, the next day. Like, say, if K-mart has the costume and the kid won't accept anything else but you don't want to buy it, you would reasonably expect to be able to go to Wal-Mart the next day and get the kid to accept something else from a selection of costumes that does not include whatever s/he fixated on the day before--she might sort of remember the other costume, but she'd be distracted from it by the costumes that are right in front of her. OTOH, if the costume is something that every store is selling, I would be willing to believe a kid that age gravitating toward it in every store day after day.

So, short answer, if you're careful, you could do it in a way that would be plausible.

[stackcats.livejournal.com]

I'd say so, but probably because of the colours or they just took a liking to that one thing, as kids do; they probably wouldn't understand why they'd be wearing those clothes. More a case of 'I want the shiny one' than 'I want to be a witch'.

[debbiel66.livejournal.com]

I had one who was talking in complete sentences by 14 months, so I would definitely say yes.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

I agree, an intelligent 14-month-old would say "That one," or "The red one," or "the hat one" or whatever.

I'd love an injury component, but who doesn't like to see a wee one get hurt?

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Absolutely a bright 14-month-old could insist on a particular costume.

And sure, throw in an illnes or injury.

WRITE IT!!! Can't wait...

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

According to my mum, my younger brother used to express his clothing preferences by undressing himself if he didn't approve of her choices (I don't know whether he was as young as 14 months, but he was certainly doing it when he was a toddler) XD

What kind of illness or injury? *intrigued*

PS Just remembered - he was walking at about 12 months, so he could easily have been removing unwanted clothing at 14 months :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I don't know what kind of illness or injury! Like I said, I don't really have a plot in mind, just a concept. Will email you. : )