Hi. I would really appreciate some answers at the moment, because I'm a little bit unsure about my ds' behaviour. He's in Year 2 at school and will be turning seven in July.
Do you find that as an only child, your son or daughter's behaviour tends to be more confident/outspoken/precocious, or more reserved/shy/compliant? I really feel as though I need to know if there's any kind of correlation here with being an 'only' child. I would describe my ds as being in the first category right now - even though he's got a lovely nature and is generally a pretty good kid, he somehow feels that he is older than his years and likes to push boundaries. He has a number of friends his own age, but he also has two older half-brothers and some older cousins who he loves being with, and he's obviously the only child living at home with dh and I.
He challenges us (regularly) and even though we do discipline him (regularly!), he will be good for a while but then take up the same kind of behaviour again. He has told me numerous times that he thinks he's 'grown up', and the scary thing is that he really seems to believe that he's on a par with dh and I. I spoke to his teacher yesterday afternoon and she said that while he's not 'naughty' and does do his work well, she sometimes has to pull him up for things he says (from this I think she means inappropriate things, like trying to be smart or making comments that she doesn't really approve of). She also asked me whether ds spends a lot of time around older kids, because apparently a lot of things he says go straight over his classmates' heads - in other words, she thinks he seems 'older' and a bit more ahead of many of the other children. By ahead, I mean 'mentally' ahead, not academically - just a lot more aware of things than other children his age.
I realise that a certain amount of this probably comes from being an only child, but I'm also wondering whether he just has a strong personality and is trying to assert himself a lot of the time. Lately it seems the more I try to encourage him to behave & conform, particularly in the classroom situation, the more he likes to push the boundaries. Dh was apparently a bit of a know-it-all at school who tried to organise his teacher on a regular basis, so perhaps I can just blame this on dh . Seriously though - it does concern me a bit and I'm wondering whether we need to be a bit stronger with him discipline-wise, or whether we may need to try something else. Thanks...