My 7 year old DD has an extremely weird reaction to anything new, and as we get nearer Christmas it worries me a little.
When she is given a present her instant reaction is 'why are they giving me that, I don't want it'. We found last year that she had this reaction to anything she hadn't specifically asked for and was therefore expecting. I try to drum into her that it's polite to smile and say thank you even if you hate the present, but it's not getting through very well. I've also got the problem this year that she doesn't want anything, I can't get any ideas out of her at all, so everything is going to be a surprise.
She's like this with anything new - I got a couple of DVDs out of the library the other day and she had the same reaction - 'I just want to watch my old ones' - she was slightly upset and I had to reassure her she could still watch the old ones too. A new carpet was mentioned today for her bedroom some time in the future and again the reaction was the same.
What I want to know is, am I right in thinking this behaviour is odd? I don't know if other children are like this.
She also seems to have trouble separating fantasy from reality and can't watch anything remotely scary on TV - the film Madagascar terrified her and I've just had to switch off The Sound of Music because she was scared (and it hadn't got to the bit with the Nazis!)- it's that extreme. I'm really having difficulty working out how her mind works - anybody got any ideas?