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From: Doc Category: Life Date: 03 November 2007 Time: 07:25 AM Review: Hectic mass of wild children. Mysterious lack of words. Noises and silence. The silence of my new found friend I felt to be particularly perturbing. On entering the playground she ran up to hold my hand. She looked about 5 and was a heavy build so her actions, impetuous as they were, took on a violence, that I found as disturbing as I had the equally violent need she had for this fleeting friendship/intimacy. She soon took to imitating exactly my daughters actions (3 years her junior), and soon I found her on my lap smothering me with her desperate affection. The effect of this on me was compounded by her complete silence, the teachers wary "stop it"s and their hauling her off occasionally. It was not until the end that I established the reason for her silence and perhaps the reason for her behaviour. This is the third nursery I have visited, and though, Sabine's attention was suffocating, I have become accustomed to what I take to be these children's desperate need for human contact, and intimate relationships. Boys who were constantly being told off, and causing trouble, sat with me on one agonising visit, stroking my face, sitting on my lap and looking after my 'baby'. Call me reserved, but a physical distance from strangers (within reason) I see as a healthy way for children to be, not to say I disliked their attention, I was glad to reciprocate, but t it troubles me. Physical reserve I see as an indication of parental/adult contact that satisfies their needs. But I am no child psychologist. So I can stick my self righteous review up…. and forget about them.