Is it reasonable to see children as inherently sinful when we can see that they need their evolved behaviour which tests and pushes boundaries, for normal development as human beings? In what way should that sort of understanding about so-called 'wrong-doing' change our view of what Jesus' own childhood must have been like - can you be a human and not inherit the natural human condition?
Not sure that testing and pushing boundaries is necessarily regarded as sinful by many Christians, let alone by the Biblical authors, Martin. However, I'm not sure that any parent sets out to purposely teach a child how to do wrong things (though I have come across one or two whose actions in this area I would have to question 
) - so where does the ability to do wrong come from? It must somehow be ingrained within our nature as humans.
I don't think it necessarily follows that doing wrong is ingrained in anyone. It's not an ability - it's a failure of the organism to develop benignly. That failure is caused by imperfect conditions of nurturing and personal circumstances - even unwitting accidents of birth can cause problems for a developing child leaving them dysfunctional. Remember those poor, poor children in Romanian nurseries lying in cots with no love or stimulation who were severely depressed even at 9 months old. The damage to them could well be irredeemable. Brain development is hampered by poor nurturing and early physiological brain connections that flourish in a loved child die off in a child that is neglected.
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