Another help I'm at the end of my tether ones!! /very long i'm afraid

[knat]

My dd is 3.5 and is driving me mad. We have a couple of issues. The first is that 8 times out of 10 when anyone asks a question she will say No or I don't know even when she does know. She argues in the way that say she's playing with a toy and its a car.She'll say what's this (even though she knows what it is) and if you say car she'll say no its not. You ask her what she thinks it is and she says she doesn';t know. This is all getting quite wearing. She's very bright (preschool say she's reception class or above intellectually) but she's just so negative and argumentative. Even if shes been somewhere nice like Sealife - we went to grandma and grandads after and htey went oh so you've been to sealife - seen the fishes - her res';se no i not. Today when leaving preschool the teacher said bye she said no. That particular teacher has now said she's just given up asking her questions. It really upsets me and i dont know that its just a phase because shes been like it for a long time.

The other issue is potty training. We've been out of nappies for a year she still never ever asks to go for a wee or poo. If you ask her if she needs one she says no you ask her if shes sure andshe'll say no or not sure and then you take her to teh toilet and she does it. We're having lots of acccidents again at the minute but i just dont know how to get her to ask to go.

Need some help please - dont know what to do any more! Sorry its' so long

I'm sure it is a phase. Sometimes phases of things that annoy us go on for months and it seems like an eternity.
DS (age 4) always says 'I don't know' when he doesn't want to talk about something, even if he knows the answer. He's too busy thinking about something else or doing something else. Then he'll get really chatty later on (usually when it's not a good time for me to talk!).
I usually don't ask him how his day went but tell him about mine just to set him a good example!
The toilet accidents might also be down to being too busy to think about it. Does she go willingly when you take her to the toilet? Maybe try not asking but just saying 'it's toilet time' regularly.

my dd1 is 5.5 and still does the ' I don't know ' thing regularly - I think she sees it as a way of being the boss in the situation. She also has a real go at me when I ask her routine questions like - what did you have for school dinners today etc - sometimes she will lose her temper and shout at me !

no advice just sympathy.

Yes, they definitely like to be in control about when they have a conversation or not, and how much they divulge. But then, so do we according to our moods.