(Experience: Familiar with ageplay and littlespace in the BDSM community, but also directly with child alters re: DID back in the day).
It's my personal experience (of DID, I wouldn't bring littlespace into any environment with a literal child) that if the adult is behaving in a genuinely more childlike manner, most kids under the age of around 7-8 think that's great. Kids *older* than that tend to be extremely savvy that something unusual or strange is going, and some may even find it a bit creepy. In fact if you're writing is set in the modern day, most 10 year olds are savvy enough these days to be like 'ugh go do that somewhere else' and even find it embarrassing or disgusting, they certainly wouldn't want to be see by their friends in that situation, but they might make exceptions for say, playing video games where no one can judge them.
So this comes down a lot to the maturity cycle of the biokid in question.
As someone who had multiple child alters many years ago, I found that it was *fantastic* for hanging out and playing with kids from around the ages of 3-7 provided there was other adult supervision and everyone was comfortable. After that, even I could recognise that kids gain a level of awareness that means they recognise that you aren't behaving like an "adult."
Even explanations like 'sometimes they're just like that' only goes so far, a 10 year old might hear that and be like 'okay, well, I'm gonna go play over here then.'
Since you mention 10 as the marker, these kids are a lot more "with it" and much much less open to things that seem societally outside of the norm (this is literally part of their development! Kids after a certain age go through phases of finding things more gross or disgusting than normal - think boys talking about 'girl germs' or girls talking about how boys are 'gross' - and they start to discern and recognise when something abnormal or unusual is happening, even if that thing isn't going to hurt them, they start also experimenting with new kinds of withdrawn consent. From shaming a parent at the shopping centre for being seen with them, to - of course - avoiding a grown-ass adult body behaving like a literal child.)
I was fortunate enough to never make any older kids uncomfortable with my own child alters, but I have seen it happen and have heard of it happening, and it's like... ahhh, not cool. Definitely research the maturity markers of contemporary 10 year olds. Even the ones that are cool with it might have learned to be cool with it because they have a family member with DID, etc. They won't just magically become cool with it unless they are a) unusually lonely, b) from an abusive family and desperate for connection, c) have disorganised attachment because of prior abuse, d) someone is able to sit them down and explain what and why something is happening and the kid is reasonable enough to be like '.....okay I guess.'
Also, if the regressor is mentally a 10 year old, they are also going to be *very sensitive* to the judgement of other 10 year olds and may not actually want to play with them!!! This - again - is a period of life where kids pick up and drop friends like hot potatoes, and are (often) very clear about who they do and don't want to hang out with. There's no reason to assume the regressor *would want to play with the biokid either.* They might be extraordinarily sensitive to the fact that their body is "wrong." (Again, lots of eating disorders really start maturing out around these ages, kids are excruciatingly aware of their appearance and what they feel is lacking, if this regressor is truly mentally a 10 year old, they may not even want to be seen by other people because they're aware their body is so so different).
(I'm assuming they have an adult body).
I don't think it's particularly weird, I just think you might want to target some research into like cultural/sociological development of kids around the ages of 8-11, and also be extremely aware of how kids develop emotional awareness of things around taboo, disgust, things being problematic, and so on. Even if you have these two characters getting along, *readers who have kids* might question what's going on.
But yeah, generally speaking I didn't go out of my way to look for kids or anything when I had child alters take over. If anything I gravitated towards folks who could keep me safe, because I was aware that I was vulnerable. Or I would keep to myself if I was mentally around the age of 11-12, I was extremely aware something 'odd' was going on and didn't want to inflict it on anyone.
I can't speak for anyone else, and this is going back a good 15-20 years ago, so the way people talk about DID is quite different now in general.
Other folks might have very different opinions! I can only speak to my direct experience, and also understanding milestones of kids - but all kids are different, and hit milestones differently.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-01-23 04:12 pm (UTC)It's my personal experience (of DID, I wouldn't bring littlespace into any environment with a literal child) that if the adult is behaving in a genuinely more childlike manner, most kids under the age of around 7-8 think that's great. Kids *older* than that tend to be extremely savvy that something unusual or strange is going, and some may even find it a bit creepy. In fact if you're writing is set in the modern day, most 10 year olds are savvy enough these days to be like 'ugh go do that somewhere else' and even find it embarrassing or disgusting, they certainly wouldn't want to be see by their friends in that situation, but they might make exceptions for say, playing video games where no one can judge them.
So this comes down a lot to the maturity cycle of the biokid in question.
As someone who had multiple child alters many years ago, I found that it was *fantastic* for hanging out and playing with kids from around the ages of 3-7 provided there was other adult supervision and everyone was comfortable. After that, even I could recognise that kids gain a level of awareness that means they recognise that you aren't behaving like an "adult."
Even explanations like 'sometimes they're just like that' only goes so far, a 10 year old might hear that and be like 'okay, well, I'm gonna go play over here then.'
Since you mention 10 as the marker, these kids are a lot more "with it" and much much less open to things that seem societally outside of the norm (this is literally part of their development! Kids after a certain age go through phases of finding things more gross or disgusting than normal - think boys talking about 'girl germs' or girls talking about how boys are 'gross' - and they start to discern and recognise when something abnormal or unusual is happening, even if that thing isn't going to hurt them, they start also experimenting with new kinds of withdrawn consent. From shaming a parent at the shopping centre for being seen with them, to - of course - avoiding a grown-ass adult body behaving like a literal child.)
I was fortunate enough to never make any older kids uncomfortable with my own child alters, but I have seen it happen and have heard of it happening, and it's like... ahhh, not cool. Definitely research the maturity markers of contemporary 10 year olds. Even the ones that are cool with it might have learned to be cool with it because they have a family member with DID, etc. They won't just magically become cool with it unless they are a) unusually lonely, b) from an abusive family and desperate for connection, c) have disorganised attachment because of prior abuse, d) someone is able to sit them down and explain what and why something is happening and the kid is reasonable enough to be like '.....okay I guess.'
Also, if the regressor is mentally a 10 year old, they are also going to be *very sensitive* to the judgement of other 10 year olds and may not actually want to play with them!!! This - again - is a period of life where kids pick up and drop friends like hot potatoes, and are (often) very clear about who they do and don't want to hang out with. There's no reason to assume the regressor *would want to play with the biokid either.* They might be extraordinarily sensitive to the fact that their body is "wrong." (Again, lots of eating disorders really start maturing out around these ages, kids are excruciatingly aware of their appearance and what they feel is lacking, if this regressor is truly mentally a 10 year old, they may not even want to be seen by other people because they're aware their body is so so different).
(I'm assuming they have an adult body).
I don't think it's particularly weird, I just think you might want to target some research into like cultural/sociological development of kids around the ages of 8-11, and also be extremely aware of how kids develop emotional awareness of things around taboo, disgust, things being problematic, and so on. Even if you have these two characters getting along, *readers who have kids* might question what's going on.
But yeah, generally speaking I didn't go out of my way to look for kids or anything when I had child alters take over. If anything I gravitated towards folks who could keep me safe, because I was aware that I was vulnerable. Or I would keep to myself if I was mentally around the age of 11-12, I was extremely aware something 'odd' was going on and didn't want to inflict it on anyone.
I can't speak for anyone else, and this is going back a good 15-20 years ago, so the way people talk about DID is quite different now in general.
Other folks might have very different opinions! I can only speak to my direct experience, and also understanding milestones of kids - but all kids are different, and hit milestones differently.