I wonder, sometimes, if anyone writing for TV has ever met a child.  Or anyone writing for film.  Or even just writing fiction.  So often, kids appear in one of the following guises:

As the well-behaved dress accessory
As the clever, snarky brat
As the magic engine of emotional change
As the target of horrifying eeevil
As a sickly sweet Sainted child

What they don’t so much show up as are as people.

The dress-accessory child is sometimes issued as part of the “have-it-all” package, often to a...