Sometimes I find myself thinking (probably over-thinking) about what goes on in my DD's head.
Me and her dad are divorced and she spends 2.5 days a week with him. She'll go through these little phases and I find I automatically attribute things to her living arrangements and the split (3 years ago).
I don't really know anybody with kids the same age but sometimes I might have a conversation with another parent from school and I'll realise that their kids are doing these things too and these phases are perfectly normal.
But sometimes, she seems really complex. I don't really know what I am asking but I was hoping that if I write some of the things thatget me thinking, other people with 5-year-olds might say "yep, that's normal!" (whatever normal is).
She started school in September and is doing really well, she's a smart little cookie. And she generally seems very happy, so that is the main thing.
She's become a bit obsessed with having secrets:
- She wants a secret diary with a lock on?! I thought that would be another 10 years away TBH.
- She loves to draw and practice writing and we often do it together. She's started to not want to say or show what she's drawing or writing
- She likes playing imaginary games that involve making wishes, she'll ask me what my wish is and I'll tell her, but she doesn't want to tell me what her wish is because it's a secret.
On the other hand, over the last few months, she's become quite clingy
- She seems to have lost any interest in playing by herself and at home, doesn't want to do anything unless I am with her
- It's become her mission to get me to allow her to sleep with me.Sometimes I'll wake upin the night andshe's already crept in. It's a squeeze as my DP (who's lived with us for a year) is there too, so I take her back to her bed.
- Bed-time has become quite challenging. She literally won't let go of the cuddle and begs me to stay with her and gets upset when I go. Apparently, she doesn't do this at her dads.
- She's started to ask me for help to wipe herself after a poo again. She doesn't do this at her dad's either.
- Sometimes, she'll just decide she's got a sore leg and will limp. I'll check her out and keep an eye on her but can't figure out anything wrong. Other people will say she is attention seeking, but she isn't short of attention so I wonder why she needs to do this.
- DP and I are thinking of TTC soon so I have slipped into conversation a couple of times about babies (nothing about me having one) She says she hates babies. We saw a baby in a restaurant last week and she said 'yuk, a baby!'
- She's decided she never wants to get married because when you're married you have to have babies. And she never wants her mummy to get married again either because she would have to be a bridesmaid. (I've never mentioned I might get remarried to her, but one day we'd like to)
- We'll be reading and she is very good at it, but if you try and help her with a word, that's it, she just won't do it anymore, it's game over.
- She's very very vocal about equal opportunities which staggers me sometimes! Although obviously it's good! But at any opportunity she will remind you that girls and boys are the same. Eg. We accidentally walked into the gents in a supermarket and I joked I could tell it wasn't the ladies because of the smell. Her response "you shouldn't say that mummy, boys and girls smell the same!" haha! But this goes for everything "mummies and daddies are the same" and she gets very passionate about it.
There's more but they're what spring to mind right now. Does any of it sound like there might be more of a deep rooted confusion about anything...? Am I being neurotic?