好久不见 (haven't seen you for a long time) 

Is this a case where either 没 or 不 are okay?

I must say this tendency for 豆豆 to use the Third Person is alarming - I thought that was the predictable outcome of not being able to cope with fame. (In Australia sports stars and film stars when first achieving success seem to switch to using the Third Person when talking about themselves.)    

hehe,yeah I was reminded of "the Jimmy" instead but as this was a very young kid I thought it was ok.Some kids will do this when they are first learning to talk[in fact you will even hear some parents talk to their kids in a way that encourages this third person approach].At least it's not the Royal We:"Ultraman?..huh..We are not amused"...wouldn't sound too 乖 【well behaved],now would it? I was wondering whether it is more common amongst Chinese kids though.

真希望我们不要再长大了！Zhēn xīwàng bùyào zài zhǎngdà le! How much I hope we could stop growing! (So we can stay young!)

I realise that child rearing is re-invented every generation; I look back with horror what we visited upon our kids! Eg. our clumsy attempts to avoid gender bias.  

 In fact we studiously avoided any 'baby talk' and always spoke to our children as if we were talking to another adult. We believed that this showed children proper 'respect'.

Completely agree mate.This was our approach as well,hehe.But you still hear it.Curious what you mean by:

living in China I have come to learn that the roots of this philosophy we espoused lie in individualism.

..as I would find your insights on this matter very interesting from a cultural viewpoint.

It is interesting that we have 一年没见 in this lesson and John says that the 没 pertains to a negation in the past. However, it also seems like the 不 in 好久不见 negates the past. Is this because they are interchangeable in the latter, or is the latter simply a phrase that has developed as an exception to the rule? ( Or is there no contradiction at all? )

Would be interested to hear any feedback.

好久 不/没 见 (haven't seen you for a long time) 

In this case, both  "没" and "不" are okay.It's simply a phrase that has developed as an exception to the rule.

This might be a bit serious for ChinesePod but the 'conservative' Chinese critics of Western values refer (amongst other things) to the different attitudes to children and the family.  They say that in the West we 'abandon' our children too early, asking them early to stand on their own two feet (because we subscribe to 'individualism').  We offer them privacy and independence from a young age, knocking at the bedroom door before entering, etc.  In China there is, by comparison, filial piety (an enduring relationship compared to family bonds in the West?) and a saying that parents look after their children for the first thirty years and then children look after parents for the next thirty years (I'm paraphrasing.)  

I've just marked 90 essays on Chinese resentment of Western values. What has this got to do with economics you might ask?  Ask away.  :-) Economists try to construct models of human behaviour; to do this you need to delve into underlying values.  

Ha! No match for "Dotaman", a Gaelic bearded guitarist. On youtube, and crank it up, because it is quiet!

This was the best Scottish TV could produce when I was growing up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVyOCyqo8U

What was he singing at the end? I think I need subtitles,hehe.