My Son will be 7 in March, he is the eldest of 4 - with the youngest being 2. Tonight he declared - on the back of an argument about whether he should go to rugby practice - that although he loved me he wished he could live somewhere else and never see me again. Ouch!
I actually ignored that part of it. We got over the rugby argument, we went... he enjoyed it but then on the return journey asked for some chewing gum which he nor any of his siblings have ever had or been allowed and when I said no he went back to the argument of before. He said 'he wished he had something of his own' and when I asked what sort of thing, he said 'to be allowed to play on the road, have a toy gun (none in the house - I hate children playing with toy guns, they make anything into a gun in any case) or have chewing gum'. So I face an obvious dilemma..1) I deny my children things on a principle that other parents don't deny them.. I am reluctant to back down on these - they are my principles after all 2) Am I too rigid in my principles? 3) Is my son really just calling out for attention and should I consider it as a call for one on one attention - with me? or with his dad? Clearly he wants to be doing the things his peers are - this is only going to get worse I am sure (my stance on screen time is strict)...I don't feel that I am too strict - they are allowed to build fires/dens... build walls, climb trees, make models things out if anything they find.. What should I do?