To wonder if 'free spirited' is a euphemism for 'spoilt unruly brat'

[Vintagejazz]

Twice recently I have heard children being described to their parents as 'free spirited' ie 'oh Emily is a real free spirit isn't she'?
and then been told privately 'oh my God you should have been at that wedding. Emily is an absolute brat'.

Just wondering if this is now a common term used to politely tell parents that you think their child is an annoying, unruly little pest?

newsecretidentity

And, Snap! - I have one like that.

As opposed to newsecret who is funny and quirky and whose youngest reminds me of some of my nephews and nieces

Sorry, last post addressed to Nannyplum.

Spirited,wilful,disobedient
Free spirit as above with indulgent parents who think every act js a phenomena that mustn't be inhibited

I've often said my dd (15) is a free sprit but is definitely not unruly. I mean she isn't concerned with conforming to peer pressure and "typical" teenager behaviour. She makes up her own mind even if she does it alone because her friends aren't interested in her chosen interest, crocheting for example.

Well I would have no problem with a child who wants to crochet. It's the ones who want to swing out of the back of your chair in restaurants, or play 'pirates' with the baguettes in Tesco that make me .

hmm, well my DS is the kind who would want to do those things Vintage - but it's my job not to let him. Doesn't stop him from trying tho

DS also is a 'free spirit' who doesn't 'believe in the word no' Electrical. Sadly for him he was born into a 'boundary obsessed' dictatorship. He will continue to mount his one child revolution till he realises i hope that Mummy always wins. I fought the law and the law won!

Bella, ds2 is like that! He's 11 and the only boy in knitting club.

Like bellarations, my daughter has been described as free spirited, but she is not naughty (although has had elements of it in the past!).

She knows her own mind, she doesn't follow the crowd, and if her friends are doing something she doesn't want to do, she won't do it - she'll go off and find someone else to play with, or play alone quite happily. She certainly doesn't do anything just because it is cool, or in the in crowd. She's 10 and she has her own style of dress - proper dresses, wouldn't be seen in the jeans all her friends wear.

Yet, she most definitely is not naughty. Her school report this year describes her as independent, and that she 'sets a good example with her behaviour'.

She's still free spirited though. She'll do what she wants, and doesn't care whether it's cool, what her friends do, or what over people think of her. She's quite gutsy in many ways.

I only ever hear 'free spirit' and 'live wire' used in a negative way. There seems to be a sort of code at the school gates. If you say you're having X round for tea, you might get a raised eyebrow and a 'Ah. He's quite a, um, livewire' and you know to make sure the parent stays, rather than drops and runs.

DD is described regularly as 'a real character,' by her nursery nurse. I tend to read this as 'polite and cuddly but stubborn as two mules tied end to end.'

I've had 19 years more experience of stubborn than her though. Rule one, mummy wins.

In my experience genuinely free spirited children tend to be fairly quiet and day dreamy and oblivious of some of the rules and conventions, as opposed to deliberately defiant of them.

The kind of children who wreck other people's houses, push kids off the swing, throw stuff around the supermarket and run riot in restaurants totally unchecked by parents are actually badly brought up children who are sadly being turned into the kind of kids no one wants to be around and who other parents forbid their children from playing with.