To think that mums who refer to primary age and pre-school children as alpha males....

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

are taking the competitive parent thing to a whole new level?

peachy

and vice versa!

I've never heard it applied to boys, only girls. My dd when she was younger frequently wanted to take charge and tell other children what to play, how to behave etc. Which wasn't a huge problem as generally she chose quieter girls who liked being mothered a bit as playmates, and they seemed quite happy for dd to decide what game to play etc. However one year she was in a class where the majority of girls wanted to be the boss, and so there was lots of falling out, as they weren't terribly good at taking it in turns to be the leader.

When chatting to the teacher/other mums it seemed to be a fairly common way to describe the interactions, and didn't seem to have any particularly negative or positive connotations. It's not a term I've used for a few years as the friendships have a got a lot more complicated since then.

I would say it's a mentality issue and explains why the world is full of people who just walk all over everyone else....

I think there are very few real Alpha males or females around and they are charismatic and natural born leaders...

I think it is just all part of the uber-competitive parenting mentality to be quite honest.

YANBU.

I have an ex friend acquaintance who described her son as an 'Alpha male' from about 18 months onwards. His 'alpha' status along with him having 'so much testosterone' was apparently the key reason why he would continually bite & scratch other children.

Nothing to do with the fact that you're too busy sitting on your arse drinking coffee and expostulating as to what a wonderful parent you are to actually parent your child then love?

'Alpha male' used to describe young children is nothing more than an indication of twattish middle class parents with a superiority complex trying to dress up their child's aggressive behaviour as something to aspire to.

I agree- a mentality issue. Someone on here described a little 6 yr old boy as an 'alpha male'! He was clearly just a nice, all rounder and she was jealous! Some children are natural leaders, others don't like to stand out, they prefer to follow. It doesn't make one the 'alpha' - and the quiet little follower may be the one that succeeds best in the world, eventually. We will be getting 'alpha' 2 year old next just because they talk early! ( this is probably why we get competitive mummies!)