Inspired by Kalhoun’s post in Lobsang’s thread. A fascinating thread, BTW.
I think my daughter has trouble relating to people because she is socially awkward in many small ways. For instance, she does things such as looking at one person when she is talking to another, or responding to questions with an answer that is only tangentially related.
My son has an extreme aversion to anything resembling work.
Oh, I guess ages would be good: My daughter is 15, my son 10.
What’s wrong with your kids?
My children are completely PERFECT 
, with just a few exceptions.
My 4 year old girl is already shaping up to be quite the drama queen and will burst into tears at the drop of a hat.
My 2 year old girl was a late walker and has always been very unsteady on her feet. She trips and falls quite a lot. I keep hounding the pediatrician about it wondering if she has an inner ear problem or something else and I keep getting told not to worry.
Apparently other Doper parents feel likewise! Why were our parents so critical, I wonder? 
My son, much as I love him, is completely and utterly unselfmotivating. He can be a hard worker at what he wants (chopping wood, building fires, retrofitting Nerf artillery) and a complete slug at anything else. In other words, a perfectly normal human being. He somehow, and I’m not sure how since I am the antithesis of the helicopter parent, became one of those kids you hear about today who needs detailed instructions every single step of the way. I can’t say, for example, “Please sweep and mop the dining room floor,” and walk away. If I do that, I come back to find a swept and mopped area *around *the wastebasket, the chairs, the table and any toys still lying on the ground. :smack: He’s 14.
My daughter is a klutz. Granted, she’s only 2, but she has all the grace of a drunk hippo walking through a field of landmines. She trips over air molecules that someone left laying around. She always - always - has some assortment of bumps, bruises or scabs on her face. Her father wants her to become an Irish dancer, but since she can’t walk across a room without falling twice, I think this is a long shot.
This is going to sound like a really strange answer, but I really can’t describe it any other way - he’s too much like me.
In what way? And how old is Mini2U?
Mine isn’t born yet, that fucking slacker. Shit, he/she hasn’t even been conceived! The lazy kid will probably never get out of the house…
You know, I was thinking something like this through the whole thread. Every time I see something of myself in the little one I feel kind of sorry for him.
That might not be what you were going for, but it’s true for me.
My 3yr old daughter is, at the moment, a whiner. I say at the moment because I’m hoping to break her of it before we drop her in the nearest river. Everything is a whine, from the moment she gets up in the morning, “I don’t want that cereal. I want this one! No, I don’t want this one, I want that one!” to the time she goes to bed, “I need my Pooh Bear! And a teddy bear! And a drink of water! Leave the door open! Not like that!”
Mmm, 3yr olds.
The 1yr old’s shortfall is that she has decided that both parents are to be called Daddy. My husband is Daddy, and I am Daddy (not that there’s anything wrong with having two daddies - however I am most certainly a mommy).
These are all subject to rapid change.
Oh yeah, after I go to that parent/teacher conference this afternoon I might want to add to mine.
He’s 16 - it’s hard to explain. He seems to have my temper, my cynicism, alot of my “outlook” and belief system - not that he parrots me - he seems to have come to the conclusions he has on his own and he can explain his thought processes - he also deals with situations and feels about things the exact same way I do. Not in every case - there are some things we are diametrically opposed on but when it comes down to some of the really important stuff, we’re alot closer. And I know that the way I am and my hypersensitivity has resulted in some serious pain for myself in the past, and I guess maybe I’m afraid that I know if he feels like I do, then if those things happen to him and he’ll be hurt too?
I don’t know. This is very very hard to explain - I’ll give it some thought and maybe tomorrow I can explain it better.
SiXSwordS - maybe, kinda, I don’t know - as you can tell this is tough for me to put into words.
my oldest is not self motivated. She is happy to lay in bed all day reading, and while I completely understand this, there is homework that needs doing. An 11 year old whose reading tests in the college level should not flunk reading class. :rolleyes:
my eight year old is very sensitive and a bit socially akward. I hope this changes for him.
my five year old never shuts up. all day long it’s constant noise.
oh and the fact that none of them seem be be able to hear my voice at all. :dubious:
Shoot! Someone beat me to it. 
Right now, my child’s biggest shortfall is s/he is making me fat.
Yes, I know it natural. Try looking at maternity clothes sometime. I recently saw a paisley top. Not my style, but I couldn’t help but think,“Why would a pregnant lady cover herself with a sperm print?”
They all shed. All the time.
I’m pretty sure that my kids faults are not really permanent faults, but just a side affect (effect?) of the ages they are now. They both have strong foundations and I’m hoping these quirks are just passing fancies that they will grow out of. That said,
AdoptaTeen Daughter is 14 and says “like” every 10 words. It’s driving me insane! She, similar to her group of friends, uses Valley Girl talk entirely too much. I’ve tried to explain to her that there’s a time and place to “talk the talk”, and when she’s with grown ups that is not the time!
AdoptaTeen Son , 15, keeps waffling back and forth between uber responsible/trustworthy behavior and total flake/goof off behavior and doesn’t think thru the long term consequences of his choices. I’d be satisfied with a happy medium, but we keep swinging on the pendulum and I never know what to expect from day to day!
I’m clinging to the prayer that “this too will pass”, otherwise I’d have to pitch them out and let the cats finish rearing them.
(But they really are the coolest kids)
My 6yo is too nervous about taking any sort of risk; she takes caution a little too far sometimes, and I try to encourage her to be a little braver. She also tends to cry at odd times when she doesn’t get something like schoolwork, but she’s growing out of that and rarely does it any more.
My 3yo is getting picky about food and it’s pretty annoying to have her start crying as soon as she hears what’s for dinner (unless it’s macaroni and cheese). “I don’t like that!” Whine whine. Usually it’s something she liked fine last time, or else it’s something she’s never even had but which contains lots of things she likes. Grr. But really she’s not that bad about it.
Actually they are both very nice, easy children, and I have a feeling that it will all come back to bite me when they turn into teenagers; they will probably be horrific, in order to make up for all this niceness. 
My 16 year-old boy is cranky since he started his first job- at Walmart. He used to be so loving and kind. I asked him the other day if he was PMSing or what and he said (loudly) “My friends ask me that all the time!!” :rolleyes:
My 14 year-old boy will NOT get a haircut. I try to tell him that it actually does not look good the way it is (not cut for over a year now) and that it’s a shame it now hides his best feature, his eyes… but apparently I’m stupid and I don’t know anything.
My 8 year-old is very sensitive, a very complex little person, and very much like me. He has a lot of challenges, but the biggest one has to be his inability to take no for an answer. His whole life I’ve tried to get it through to him that he can’t always get what he wants, and it’s just never sunk in. We’re working on it.
My son gets very anxious in certain types of group situations. Generally if he is in a group of kids like at school or somewhere, and he thinks he doesn’t understand a set of instructions but that everyone else does he will break down in tears.
Since he is partially deaf it is understandable why he might think he is missing stuff but we would really like him to be more adaptable in these types of situations, like ask whatever grownup happens to be in charge what is going on. (These aren’t life and death type situations he is in, more like he has a choice between drawing a ducky or a bunny in art class, or something like that.)
We would also like him to be more socially aware/gracious. He is a cute kid and alot of other kids would like to be his friend but he acts very cool and aloof a lot of the time, and doesn’t (yet) care about hurting other people’s feelings.
He is seven BTW.
Mr. Neville’s aunt is a grown-up Valley Girl (she fits the stereotype in a lot of ways, and she actually grew up in the San Fernando Valley). She’s a professor of social work now. There is hope…
Where do I start?
The 12 year old does. not. care. about. school. We literally have to go onto Webgrader.com and Schoolnotes.com every night and check on his progress. By the way, if you’ve never checked out those sites and your kid is slacking in school, I highly suggest you go there and see how junior is doing. Anyhow, we’re looking at summer school and that really pisses me off. He can do the work - I don’t know what his deal is. It just doesn’t get turned in, or in the past he has lied about having homework. Like we’re not going to notice the missing assignments? :smack:
The 17 year old… where do I begin? All I have to say is that we’ll all be very happy once high school is over.