I think someone back there missed the irony.
The problem is that even if the kid had started joking around over the radio, the pilot is forced to do exactly what he says.
"Simon says, take off and climb into the sky. Simon says, Turn left." Tee hee. "Simon says, Turn right." Giggle "Simon says, Touch your nose." Tee hee. "Stand on your head. Hahahahaha Gotcha!"
While flying as a F.O on a shiny new jet, I had the future fleet managers 9 year old in the left...He was quite good really...better than the then fleet manager's 'secretary', an almost mute bloke supposedly with an SCPL.
While decending into Munich with the training skipper down the back, the bloke waits until I'm looking up at a failing air system and pulls against the auto pilot to slow the decent. Spring detector kicks the AP out and he lets go. The straps hit my shoulders. Nothing but green fields filling the windscreen. Level at 2,000 feet after about 2g pull. The most incredible thing is that the skipper didn't come forward to see what was happening.
Bring in the kids, they do a better job.