Describe your 5-8 yr old son

[musicalmummy]

My son is very boisterous, can be loud but then also very quiet, obnoxious then extremely helpful and kind. He's so popular at school and is always helpful but if left to his own device for too long he gets in trouble.
He is super super intelligent , his teacher even sees this.
At home he can get very very angry and snap but also gets clingy. He is attached to certain clothes and very routined. He gets anxious and asks questions over and again for reassurance (eg when is the school bus coming) .
A lot of his friends parents say their sons are very similar and it's a boy thing. How much so? At what point do you worry?

[Renn]

What is it you're worried about? Sounds like a normal kid from that description (boy OR girl)...positives and negatives...strengths and weaknesses.

[binnielici]

Sounds quite normal to me - My eldest boy is a 21 yro . Every kid has their quirks and every stage of development does also. Unless it is interfering with his social or daily life it sounds fine.

What are you worried about?

[Barnaby]

Some of it sounds similar to my son (turning 7 soon). My son has very good interpersonal skills, and always has. He can adjust his play easily to suit his audience (babies, toddlers, big kids, adults) and this means he basically always has a friend around. He has an amazing ability to show compassion and empathy for just about anyone. He has taught me a lot actually, in this area. He is gentle and kind.

He likes sport and is good at sport, but still prefers imaginative play. He is clever, especially with topics he is interested in (space, dinosaurs, geography, animals). He will watch in depth documentaries on these topics and really absorb all the information.

He is quite anxious. He finds it hard to fall asleep at night and he doesn't like too much attention on him. We are going to see a psych for this as his anxiety is starting to affect every day life. He's not very good at showing initiative and tends to need step by step instructions for tasks as he gets distracted easily. This is easily my biggest difficulty in parenting him.

He doesn't get angry or have a temper, he's not attached to clothes or routines. But he does seek a lot of reassurance in some areas, for example every morning he asks numerous times if we are going to be late for school. It doesn't seem to matter what my answer is, this is just a big worry for him. We are rarely late and the ocassions we have been he has never been in trouble, he just really hates it and worries about it a lot.

[musicalmummy]

I'm worried about the attachment to clothes, the anxiety etc. he's the same as a PP child who has trouble going to sleep to the point he prefers to sleep with my husband or myself.
Last year his anxiety was bad enough he didn't like going places but we didn't let it stop us and most times he was fine once we got there.
We were seeing a psych and since October she kept teaching me a breathing technique to do with him each night. Each night was a battle and he flat out refused. So a few sessions later she's now telling me it's bad parenting (not those words exactly) and wants to work on parenting skills.
I'll add my girls don't have those behaviours and I parent them the same way

[musicalmummy]

Barnaby your last paragraph summed it up for me yet the psych seems to dismiss all that

[Mod-Nomsie]

Mine are obsessed with technology. It is limited, but talk about it constantly. They love Nintendo, mine craft and Pokemon.
They fight a lot with each other but I feel that is normal for siblings let alone twins. They also love and depend on each other a lot.
They aren't super interested in sport but they have asked to do Auskick again this year and have shown interested in swimming or judo lessons which is a positive.
They are very bright and being a teacher in their school I have the slight advantage of seeing their scores and profiles. They are the top two students of out the 100 others grade 2. That makes me super proud. They don't work hard though and I am trying to get it through to them that if they don't start working hard they will drop down to just average, not top. They have others nipping at their heels.
They are compassionate yet selfish, independent yet not of each other and so many other contradictions in between.

[musicalmummy]

So mine is sounding pretty normal. I actually think he has me wrapped around his little finger

[Blessedwith3boys]

8 year old - kind and gentle, really good help with his youngest brother. loves basketball, football and cubs. He is a really good swimmer. He just started cubs this year and loves it. Popular at school. Loves his ipad particularly minecraft but accepts his time on it is limited. Can be reluctant to help out around the house, a little challenging. He can be inpatient.

5 year old - Much rougher than his older brother. Always willing to help, often doing things around the house without being asked. He never has to be asked twice to do something. Has lots of friends. Very independent and will speak up if he isn't happy about something, will hold his own if someone annoys him. Very confident and has alot of patience. A bit young to do sports he would like to do but would be keen to start right now. Very cuddly and loving to his family members.

[Barnaby]

I'm worried about the attachment to clothes, the anxiety etc. he's the same as a PP child who has trouble going to sleep to the point he prefers to sleep with my husband or myself.
Last year his anxiety was bad enough he didn't like going places but we didn't let it stop us and most times he was fine once we got there.
We were seeing a psych and since October she kept teaching me a breathing technique to do with him each night. Each night was a battle and he flat out refused. So a few sessions later she's now telling me it's bad parenting (not those words exactly) and wants to work on parenting skills.
I'll add my girls don't have those behaviours and I parent them the same way

I really feel in my ds's case the anxiety and sleep issues are related. For this reason I find it hard to be too tough with him at night times and he almost always winds up cosleeping with dh or I. Still, getting to sleep is hard. He loves reading and we let him read for an hr or more every night before lights out as I think it helps him to wind down.

I'll be interested to hear what the psych we go to has to say about his anxiety. I have never been an anxious person so its not something I have personal experience with. Dh has an anxiety disorder, however.