Does anyone else have the 'kooky' kid?

[KatnissNeverdone]

Now don't get me wrong. DD (7) is amazing.
She's bright, she's loving, she has loads of friends, a great (if bodily function based) sense of humour and she's very confident. She's also just plain weird.

Just a few examples.

Walking into school like a chicken, bum stuck out, arms tucked in "buck-buck buckaw-ing" at people walking past.

Will stare at someone for ages then put on this massive joker-esque grin with eyes crossed just about as they start to get uncomfortable.

She is always upside down.

For the last year has pretended to be a cat. At dance class she's known as the meower. If she doesn't like you, she hisses.

Please let me know I'm not alone in raising a quirky child. My other two were mostly sensible.(I wouldn't change her for the world btw).

The three I know like this are both very successful high achievers. Two are my daughters - one spent almost six month supply talking in a Scouse accent before her English teacher realising she was related to her siblings had RP accents. She’s just been offered a graduate scheme place with one of ‘top four’.
The other is a friends daughter who spent most of her childhood being a tomato. She and my daughter used to sell cakes in the village square but had made Letitia Cropley style offerings such as banana and cabbage loaf. She’s at Oxford doing a Masters in Engineering now.

I think bright children do have fabulous imaginations and are often seen as quirky until they meet their peers higher up the academic pathway.

My nine year old son would get on well with her.
Last holiday - running across a campsite wheeling his arms yelling CHEEEEEEEEESE
Has also been known to sidle up to people and say Potatoes! and then run away.
Made up a whole story for his little brother involving something called Cheeselings. Don't ask me. I had to ban the word cheese for a while.
He also likes to run around making distressed turkey noises.

My best friend was like this in school, always in character, dressing up, making up rhymes, pulling weird faces. All my best childhood memories are with her. She’s also a massive high achiever. Found fame and fortune (in her field) but to me she’ll always be the girl who wrote hello on her bum cheeks and opened the door to greet my mum pants down-arse out.

My eldest DD. She used to ride her bike with a chicken on the handlebars, wander down the road at 5am in her pjs looking for hedgehogs, named her rocking horse Light Bulb...

She went to Oxford and is now very well employed. She's recently diagnosed with ADD at the age of 27, and I think this enhanced her creativity.

Yes, my ds. He runs around the house pretending to be a cat. He answers with meows rather than words. He sometimes pants likes dog. I don't know if it is connected but he has adhd and when he started the medication, which had helped him massively in school, the kooky behaviour has reduced as well.

Yes, my DS who is nearly 4. He's hilarious but also infuriatingly irritating! And he often seems to be doing something I can't imagine another child doing.

To be honest I have my doubts about whether he is neurotypical or not so reading this thread is refreshing! My DH was apparently very similar as a child (although I suspect he has a form of mild ADD, so we will see!).

For the last year has pretended to be a cat. At dance class she's known as the meower. If she doesn't like you, she hisses. Change the she to he and you're describing my son.

I think DD is definitely NT. Her brother has ASD and some other problems and they're worlds apart. Her quirks are 'appropriate' in that she can turn it off if she needs to.

Nutty your post made me chuckle as the arse out is definitely something I could see DD doing, and then nearly wetting herself laughing.

I'm glad she may be on her way to being a high achiever, although I have a feeling she may just end up a criminal mastermind.

My DS seems to have a sixth sense for when I really want him to just be normal and will decide to be extra weird! Or when it's irritating someone else, he seems to get a kick out of that too. His old swimming teacher hated him (she was a bint in fairness, who hates a 3 year old?) as she would tell the class to pretend to be whales at the end as they get out. DS would take it as far as he could and drag himself along until he reached the side of the pool, complete with whale noises. It used to drive me (and her) mad and I swear he knew and would do it more!

Two quirky children.

Admittedly one has just been diagnosed with high functioning ASD, but he usually masks very well (I get the fall out after) and he gives off a lovely sense of confident individualism. His sensory issues give him a unique sense of style too. He's got a lovely niche slot in his class and is happily accepted and respected.

I think the other is just a bit bonkers and clearly my child rather than being particularly neuro-diverse. He's very enthusiastic and literally quivers with excitement. His teacher wondered why he was pointing repeatedly from his page to his head... apparently he was trying to get his ideas into his head . He's a cute, lively little boy who's always on the go with a cheery disposition. He gets very immersed into his own world when he plays, with wonderful chirruping sound effects and much quivering. Who'd have thought that it was so exciting playing with two crisps??? Delightfully bonkers!

I do not produce wallflowers that are easily forgotten by their teachers!

My daughter (nearly 7) is quirky. Until she was about 5 or 6, she refused to answer to her own name. She had a variety of different names depending on what she was into at the time and it just wasn't worth trying to call her something else. There was also a stage where we ourselves had to have different names, and I will never forget my husband trying to take her into a shower in a water park, saying "come with daddy" or similar, and her yelling "you are not my daddy!" age 3. Because his name at the time was Sebastian.

I think she's probably very clever as she is very articulate (the other day, she said to me "My brain is thinking about high finance and this is making it sweat"). And she is the top reader in her year. She will approach almost any adult (known or unknown) and regale them, but is shy about asking a school friend to play with her. When we go on holiday, she often makes friends with slightly older children, especially boys. We have to spend the mile-long walk to school pretending to be characters from My Little Pony and she gets very cross if I break character or "use the wrong scenario" (her words). She never calls me Mummy. She has various different names for me. She doesn't call DH Daddy either.

It can be a bit exhausting! But she is brilliant. Long live quirky!

running across a campsite wheeling his arms yelling CHEEEEEEEEESE
Has also been known to sidle up to people and say Potatoes! and then run away.
Made up a whole story for his little brother involving something called Cheeselings. Don't ask me. I had to ban the word cheese for a while.

This sounds EXACTLY like things my 8yo DS would do. He makes up cartoon characters and invents weird contraptions too, and makes stupid noises a lot of the time. I've also had to ban phrases!