I'm just looking to get an idea if my DD behaviour is in the relm of normal or if we might need to get her checked out. There has always been something with her that I can't quite put my finger on but she is also our first DC and so it might be that we as parents are learning as we go. I do have another DC who is 2 years old and is very different in personality and seems more like a bog standard kid to my DD who has not long turned 5 years old.
DD is such a bright, clever, caring little girl and love her to bits but I also find her quite challenging and I'm not sure how to navigate some of her behaviours. Here are some things that worry me...
-she struggles to sit still at the table despite eating at the table for 90% of meals and also spends a lot of time there drawing. She will often just fall of her chair and hurt herself.
-absolutely endless energy and then will have a crash at the end. I will say I think she takes after DH who is very athletic and when I compare her to other girls her age, she is much more agile and strong. She could spend all day in motion and struggles to sit down to rest and in turn she will burn out and have big emotional outbursts.
-has very big emotional outbursts over little things like uncomfortable clothes or if her school bag isn't sitting right. She struggles to calm down from these even though I go through deep breaths (says she can't do it for crying), cuddles (she just keeps crying), talking about the problem (she will listen but says she still can't control her emotions). Some mornings she will cry all the way to school and won't stop until she sees a friend. At home sometimes if I leave her in her room with the door open and sit in my room next door with the door open then she will have maybe 15 mins of letting it all out and then come through like nothing has happened.
-copies her friends all the time. Lots of little things like if we are walking to school and sees her friend with their bag off then she will no longer want to carry her bag. Copies the annoying things her friends say etc.
-always seems to pick one friend and then have horse glasses on for them. She has a lovely little relationship with her BF and I worry she isn't playing with other kids. She also has a very strong preference to me over DH (despite DH working from home since she was a baby and him being a very present father) and when at my DP showing a strong preference to DM.
-when playing a make believe game, she gets very investigated and wants me to call her by whatever chosen name all day every day. Gets very involved and doesn't want to ever stop playing it.
-struggles to leave play dates and gets very upset when it's time to go home.
Some other things to note are that she is very bright and loves the activities at school. She is always wanting to learn and even at home is always wanting to practice reading and writing, loves numbers and learning about anatomy (randomly loves the body). She also just loves drawing princesses and rainbows etc. She is very sweet and caring towards her little brother. She eats very well and will try new things, she struggles to go to sleep and wakes up early but once asleep she is a great sleeper. She is such a great kid but for the reasons above I do struggle to know how to navigate these things. I often feel absolutely exhausted after spending a whole day with her and I'm not sure if it's just me not being able to cope as a parent (my DH is the same) or if we need to get her checked out. I don't get to see the other kids when she's at school to see if the other kids are like this too and during play dates the kids just disappear into the bedroom to play. Would it be possible for OP to give their experiences of a 5 year old girl please?