Not every "change" is a success.

Fintan has a habit of noticing things that other five year olds might overlook. Worse still, where company is concerned, he also has a habit of speaking out about them.

Yesterday, we were watching TV as a family. An advert came on that featured quite a few people engaged in complex conversation. Fintan cocked an ear to this. At the end, a very glamorous model-like woman addressed the male protagonist of the commercial. Suddenly, Fintan turned sharply from the TV and spoke to his mother: "Mummy, that woman talks like a boy!"

Fintan - all of five years old - had spotted a trans-sexual on television. Syahidah and I laughed when we realized he had seen through all of "her"cosmetic surgery. We didn't, however, explain to him just why that "woman" spoke like a boy...it just seemed too delicate a matter to discuss with a five year old.

However, it shows that even a five year old is able to see through such a disguise. It makes one wonder how often such "changes" are actually successful, if a child can notice them - at least this child, anyway.

For those who are reading from afar, I should point out that trans-sexuals are much more common in Asia than they were in London, when I left at the end of the nineties. I don't know the situation there now, however. It is a cultural thing, in this part of the world. Many more young men seem to be choosing to alter their appearance in this way - so they are encountered, in every day life, much more frequently than would be the case in London or, from my observations, America.

This, of course, leads to situations where one may have to explain to one's children why a particular woman is so tall...or has such a low voice. To date, however, I have avoided explaining the issue to my own children: I have just let their observations pass. One day, however, no doubt I will have to explain what is going on. That day, however, is not today.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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