How 'geeky' are your 5 year olds?

[Freegate]

DD (5) in Reception has very strange interests.

First of all I should say she is very social, confident, loves school, great with reading and maths. A typical child in most aspects.

However she has some strange interests/obsessions. After a trip to the fire station she is very keen/verging on obsessed with fire hydrants. She spots all the yellow plates in the streets, she knows what the numbers mean and she is very keen on measuring the distance between the plate and the actual hydrants and she spent one Sat 3 hours checking, measuring and writing everything down in the neighbourhood. She has lots of friends of her age who couldn't care less about any of this.

She is asking me about car engines and whether electric cars still need engine oil or it's just the petrol cars that need it. And a lot of other stuff that quite honestly I don't even know. I want her to be curious don't get me wrong, but I worry she gets these little obsessions. She gets over them after a while but then finds something else.

Is this within the range of normal? Other mums laugh when they hear her questions and I'm a little embarrassed 😬

Well, my dc asks me a lot about pipes, chimneys, air vents, solar panels, fans, fire alarms...
Not sure if it's normal, lol, but you're not alone!

Oh I'm glad! Most of DD's friends have no interest in these things.

My DS is 6 and exactly the same. His things are traffic lights, it does my head in. He used to be into gates as a toddler, then pipes as a preschooler, and now moving onto more sophisticated stuff clearly. He's a completely average child in every respect.

This is probably outing but my son is seven and for about a year has been totally obsessed with the marina bay sands hotel in Singapore. 🤷🏻‍♀️
He is also very into reading facts about sharks.

Thank you for your comment.

Of course, we are glad she is curious but I just don't know how common it is to go a little obsessed about these things. The fire hydrants thing has been going to about 6 weeks now. Before then it was clothes/toy labels and what everything on the label means. That lasted about 6- 8 weeks 😬. Still looks at them but slowly losing interest.

She sounds ace. I would rather that than the endless paw patrol obsession. Most primary aged kids seem to just be interested in whatever is currently cool.

I think it is unusual to have such specific interests yes.

My DS is 4 and has very specific interests too, also verging on obsessed. They change occasionally, I think it's fairly normal

She used to obsess about Octonauts too, but we limit her TV time now so she's getting over it.

Dd is very interested in viruses and bodies. Probably due to getting chicken pox and going to the local museum that shows animals dissected.

It’s good I reckon to be into things.

Although it comes and goes so not hugely obsessive I should say

My ds is 6 now but is super geeky. Fortunately he goes to a lovely school and has lovely friends so I have never heard any teasing. He is really interested in how things work, has gone through stages of being obsessed with things like trains, bridges, aeroplanes, the underground. His favourite programmes are time team and documentaries about trains. I'm just glad he's interested in the world and think one day he will be an engineer! My dd, almost 5, is not like this at all.

My DS 5 in reception and all of his friends seem to have interests like this. One loves maps and knows more about the world than I do, one is really into dinosaurs (which seems a v common one at this age), one loves David Attenborough and knows all about loads of animals. DS likes vehicles and could tell you all about a variety of different and unusual ones after a lot of watching “Gracie’s Amazing Machines”. Your child sounds lovely. Don’t overthink it.

She sounds fab, a potential engineer or scientist of the future. Nurture and encourage her and she'll go far

My grandson is obsessed with how the body works, that and monsters,he can spend hours at the time talking about vampires or werewolves depending on which is monster of the day.

Oh I'm so glad to hear :)

I do hope so :)

I love Marina Bay Sands, been there 10 years ago :). I think DD would get obsessed with it too 😁

My four year old grandson is obsessed with settlement cracks in properties and how to fix them

Around this age I think its very normal to have special interests that they get obsessed with, your DD's one sounds a lot more interesting and less irritating than my DS's obsession with Minecraft!

My DD's obsession at the same age was death, which was awkward. Lots of questions about death, singing songs about dying, making up stories about dying. Just so much death.

Normal I'd say.
With DD (now 8) it was dinosaurs.
With DS (nearly 5) it's Pokémon. Before that it was tractors.
DN (7) it was PawPatrol.

My 6 year old loves to point out the fire hydrant signs too after a visit to school from a fireman. He is a lovely little geek and I love it. He is so enthusiastic and loves learning new things it amazes me.

He's just recently started Beavers and this suits him so well. Lots of learning about new things and new skills. They allow girls so maybe see if there are any local to you?

@Natsku my DS has been like this. Started after Queenies funeral, we've had all sorts of weird and wonderful questions about death and coffins and dead bodies. It's stressful trying to respond with age appropriate answers! Glad I'm not alone

DD's obsession started from me singing molly malone to her so I've never sung it to DS!