charliedanilovich:
I love that post about Bajoran bluegrass and like… I raise you just childhood on other planets in general! Like what do Vulcans think of when they think of a childhood toy? I can imagine Vulcans giving their kids puzzles but they also keep sehlats, huge fluffy animals, so do they also give their kids big plushies for when the family sehlat passes away? What does a Vulcan children’s playground look like? Did Spock and Tuvok and Michael go on swings when they were kids or are Vulcan playgrounds just full of various logic puzzles? What’s on the curriculum in a Klingon classroom? Their culture values excellency in battle over everything else so how does a Klingon teacher convince a classroom of kids named after Kahless that no, you need to do your maths homework not just fight each other? When Keiko tries to convince Rom to send Nog to school with human and Bajoran kids we learn that the Ferengi education system works via apprenticeships rather than a rigid school structure with mandated materials, which is so interesting! It means that it must be really common for Ferengi to have massive blindspots in their knowledge for sectors they have no personal experience in. And we also learn that Quark used to read baby books to Nog when he was a baby so… Ferengi children’s literature! Ferengi kid’s cartoons! I bet Ferenginar has lots of Chuck E Cheese type establishments for kid’s birthday parties it’s probably an entire industry tons of people have stock and investment in. What about Cardassian kids! It seems that Cardassians have quite authoritarian parenting styles but they also value family over everything and it’s common for multiple generations to live together, so the pressure to move out of your family home doesn’t seem as prevalent in their culture. So Cardassian kids must be used to multiple caregivers and grow up with the expectation that they will care for their elderly family members. What does a Cardassian kids bedroom look like? Is it common for siblings to share? What about Bajoran children? What was the childhood of the last generation of Bajorans who got to have a childhood unburdened by the occupation like? How many culturally specific toymakers had their shops destroyed and how many children’s games haven’t been played in decades due to a lack of space and safety? If you’re a Bajoran parent who lost their youth to the occupation with a baby who’s been born in a free Bajor, what’s the thing you most want them to experience that you never got to have? I never stop thinking about this.