Ds 10 always thinks people are being mean

[Foxton20]

I wasn’t sure how to word it correctly.

Ever since Ds was 6ish he has always made out whatever someone said to him was meant in a different way.

Like today, I joked that when a parcel came last night that he thought I would have a take away.

He said “so you’re saying that all I think about are takeaways?!” Orrr
Sat at the dinner table and youngest dd Says “Ds has asked for chocolate from Santa” and he replies really upset “are you calling me fat?” Wtf no!

Is this normal?!

Normal, I guess, just very frustrating. sort of wallowing in low self-esteem.

Ds2 is like this. Very argumentative and draining!

DS (11) can be very like this with his friends. I’m hoping he’ll grow out of it

Have a chat with him, about how it's important to digest what people are saying before jumping to a conclusion. It's a good opportunity to talk about listening skills and critical thinking. I'm sure you could find some examples online of how communication can go wrong if you jump to conclusions etc, and what the consequences of that could be.

Those two examples are to do with food. Is it always food or is it with everything? Could they be having body issues. Or getting bullied about their appearance.

How does he react if someone really does mean something as a small tease, rather than him assuming it is?

Perhaps you need to explain to him about good-natured teasing, and point out when other people do it to each other. As a child, I simply couldn't take small teases from anybody, and I'd easily run away crying. It made me very unpopular with my peers. Also, I realised that I never ever did tease anybody else: in my world, people didn't say things like that to each other.

Is it always food?

Try and encourage him to be more positive. It's a phase but wouldn't be nice if he carries it on into adulthood (though I'm sure he won't).

My brother is still like this at 40. It is extremely draining to be around him as he has a total victim mentality.

I would definitely try to nip this in the bud by building his self esteem and not letting him wallow.