6-year-old dd's - are they all impulsive?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd's actually not quite 6 but very nearly and in the last few months has changed in character quite a lot. I'm wondering if it's a phase or permanent - hoping for the former!

It's not a huge problem, just something I'm curious about - it's to do with impulsiveness. Previously she was rather cautious and very neat and careful in almost all things including dressing, eating, drawing and what she says. Suddenly she's become ridiculously impulsive and impatient, eats more messily, scribbles instead of drawing, has huge dramatic outbursts over really very insignificant things. Yesterday, for instance, she ran up o me with a black felt pen and drew a big cross on my jeans then ran off again. I always tell her off and she's very remorseful but seems to be acting without thinking.

Is this familiar and will it pass?

Hmmm, I have an almost 6 year old and wouldn't say she was particularly impulsive in the way you've described but she can do completely off the wall things without thinking. And we do have dramatic outbursts ... but then she's always been a bit like that. If you've noticed a sudden change in her, that would set a few alarm bells ringing. Is anything going on in her world that could be bothering her? Sounds a bit like pent up frustration maybe?

I don't know if anything's bothering her. She just seems to have a lot of restless energy. Maybe it's to do with the summer holidays. And too many late nights?

The first week of the summer holidays were a real eye-opener for me. DD was literally bouncing off the walls. She was on the move non-stop. My mum was looking after her whilst I was working (at home) and she wouldn't even chill out and watch TV which is really unlike her .

It really brought it home to me just how stimulated they are at school.

She REALLY can't cope with late nights. Anything later than 8.30pm totally wipes her out and she is hideous the next day. Hysterical over little things, snappy at the rest of us, bickers with her little sister, just awful.

So yes, prob just no school and late nights. You'll be able to see if that's it once she's back into the routine of school.

That's interesting wc. She's back to school tomorrow so I'll reassess then. But in the meantime I did lots of googling last night on 6-year-old behaviour and all the things like being unable to sit still / getting unreasonably upset over nothing seem to be totally the norm for this age group.

Despite the absolute chaos and non-stop energy of her this summer I'm going to really miss her when she goes back to school. She's been such an entertaining buddy.