Questions tagged [middle-childhood]

Age specific questions from about 8 years to about 11 years. Younger: primary-schooler. Older: pre-teen.

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54 votes
8 answers
11k views

How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?

I have a 9 and a 12 year old. They'll (either one) get into a video game and then want to talk about it. Have you ever heard someone talk about, say, minecraft? first i got some oak sticks, but then ...
12 votes
7 answers
9k views

I don't know if my step-son hates me, is scared of me, or likes me?

My partner and kids have had issues in the past with previous partners/father figures, being abusive, selfish etc., which has left a mental scar on the 3 of them. I have not pried into it yet, as they ...
  • 611
3 votes
1 answer
172 views

What are things to consider when moving yourself and kids closer to your girlfriend?

I’m beginning to think about moving closer to my girlfriend to spend more time with her. We’ve known each other for around 7 months now and things are going great! We are both good at communicating in ...
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to best deal with kids ringing doorbell and running away?

I don't talk with my neighbours much besides the occasional hello and wave when we see each other outside. I live in a neighbourhood of townhouses. 2 boys (age low elementary school, I dunno grade 3 ...
5 votes
2 answers
571 views

Kleptomania in 9 year old

So, my 9 yo step sons has a big issue with stealing. The issue is that it's not stealing money, or for gain. A lot of the time, he just takes things, just so that he can have it. He takes something, ...
  • 611
2 votes
1 answer
568 views

Taking children to the musical Kinky Boots

Our local theater is back live this fall. I have tickets for our family, and want to decide whether it is appropriate for 9 and 13 year old children. What kinds of mature topics does Kinky Boots have? ...
46 votes
8 answers
9k views

How to get my younger sister to listen?

Not a parent but a big sister to an 8yo, I'm about ten years her senior. Mom has left for a month (caring for her parents) and with dad working it's up to me to make sure my sister is doing ok. Every ...
1 vote
2 answers
197 views

Should we reciprocate what our children does to us or should we do what ideally should be done?

My question is specific to my son who is about 12 years. When we ask him to do some favour like helping do some work and sharing his ice cream, he will always refuse to do so. I am confused as to what ...
  • 1,123
4 votes
2 answers
227 views

How to help son overcome stress over the time limit in first exam?

My son is in the 2nd grade (8 y/o) and at school, he doesn't have any exams at all yet. He passed the first stage of a gifted education project, that would greatly help him if he gets into it. The ...
3 votes
2 answers
569 views

Annoying kid at the park

My son is 9. He goes to a neighborhood park where he runs into an older kid (11) every now and then. Let's call this kid J. J is an extremely outgoing kid, who almost lives in the park. He has been ...
3 votes
2 answers
489 views

Will "positive parenting" techniques work with my children?

I have two children (age 8 & 6). Both are very strong-willed. The stress of the pandemic and remote learning have taken their toll and caused their behaviors to escalate. They are now more ...
4 votes
3 answers
337 views

acting instead of the teacher against bullying

I live in Israel. Here bullying is not as much on the radar as it is in the United States. For example, there don't seem to be special "bullying policies" in the schools. In fact, when I ...
30 votes
11 answers
6k views

What do I do to get my nine-year old boy off books with pictures and onto books with text content?

Books for kids now have a wide range of 'graphic novels'. When I grew up, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or CS Lewis Narnia series, or Charlotte's Web had a few illustrations, but they were ...
  • 2,243
6 votes
1 answer
212 views

Resources & activities for helping teach children how to fact check claims they hear?

I want to teach some middle schools in my family how to better fact check things they hear online, and basically encourage more critical thinking about the things they hear. I'm looking for support ...
  • 3,532
47 votes
5 answers
12k views

How to protect my child from friend's over protective father?

My 9yo son has a class mate whose father doesn't allow her to socialize with boys. The girl herself, on the other hand, is pretty adamant about being friends with my son, bordering on obsessive. I'd ...
  • 579
2 votes
2 answers
221 views

How to encourage 9 year old boy to start learning new skill

I have a 9 year old son. He loves doing things he is good at but is not very open to start trying new things. For ex. he is doing Karate since he was 6 yr old and now he is intermediate level and good ...
26 votes
9 answers
6k views

Should I correct my daughter's pronunciation of ballet terms?

I'm a Hong Konger. I grew up in Montréal, Canada so I speak French, albeit with a perfect Québécois accent (which I'm proud of). I now live in Hong Kong. My daughter was born in Hong Kong and mostly ...
  • 501
2 votes
1 answer
212 views

Deal with child in self-destruct mode with sibling

My partner and I have each a kid - an 8 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. The girl believes that anything the boy gets, she should get as well - no matter how it was obtained. This is how she views ...
37 votes
10 answers
8k views

How to instill scepticism towards authority, albeit in a healthy way?

I have a nine year old son. I personally believe kids should have a healthy scepticism towards authority, and should question stuff before blindly acknowledging and obeying it. However, I'm not sure ...
  • 403
2 votes
0 answers
108 views

Exercising visual spatial intelligence using interactive storytelling

What is the best way to exercise visual spatial intelligence for my 8 year old in regards to interactive story telling? I currently have her describe the surrounding environment she envisions in as ...
44 votes
10 answers
8k views

How do I explain the reasons behind protesting and rioting to my children?

We live in a major US city, and while we live far enough away from the areas most affected by the rioting and protesting that is currently ongoing, we are not so far that my children aren't aware - ...
  • 60.3k
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

Is it good or bad to correct a child's spelling online?

I regularly have text and video chats with my 8 year old nephew. Naturally, he doesn't know how to spell every word, so every once in a while he'll misspell something (e.g. "af" = "have" or "supries" ...
  • 276
3 votes
4 answers
593 views

Is it healthy for children (aged 8-14) to play with toys from for R rated film franchises?

Obligatory: not a parent. I was wandering through Walmart the other day when I came across toys, designed for kids (aged 8-14 is my guess) from the Alien franchise. (Lanard is the company, for those ...
  • 131
3 votes
2 answers
617 views

Girlfriends Daughter

I recently started dating an on again off again friend of mine back in May. We've been living together in our new house since October. We're both in our mid thirties and have known each other since ...
  • 39
5 votes
2 answers
297 views

Building credit history for a child

I just came across this suggestion on Facebook that was talking about building credit for my children, I basically pay them (the company) a month for a period of years, under my child's name and they ...
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is school punishment for mediocre test results reasonable?

My daughter is 9 years old, she's just started grade 4. We've had her in a school for gifted kids since kindergarten. It's been great so far because they understand the challenges that gifted kids ...
3 votes
2 answers
467 views

How to talk to my 8-year-old daughter about her absent father?

My 8-year-old daughter hasn’t seen her father since she was 5 months old. It was an mentally and physically abusive relationship, so we moved to a different province and he hasn’t attempted to see her ...
5 votes
2 answers
343 views

How to talk about a historic suicide in the family to young kids?

My brother took his own life in 2000 at age 23. My kids - 10-year-old girl, 8-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl - know that I had a brother and that he died, but I have not told them anything more than ...
3 votes
2 answers
367 views

How to help my 11-years old sister, who is terrified after watching a horror movie?

Context: at a birthday party my 11-years old sister watched Annabelle and Annabelle 2. She told us later that even though she was frightned the whole time, she didn't want to stop watching, mainly for ...
  • 131
4 votes
2 answers
208 views

How to teach my people-pleasing daughter to balance between helping others and accounting for her own needs?

My younger daughter is a people pleaser. She always wants everyone else to be happy, often to her and her older sister's emotional detriment. She lets people take advantage of her generosity, buying ...
0 votes
1 answer
248 views

Why does my 10-year-old daughter not complete her homework?

My 10-year-old girl is a class four pupil. As a parent and teachers we have realised that she does not always complete her work. She doesn't want to think, so she will even cut the questions and write ...
  • 1
3 votes
2 answers
710 views

How to make my 8-year-old son stop crying over the most simple things?

My 8-year-old son has ADHD and has been on the same medication for 3 years. Anytime he doesn't get something he wants, has to do something he doesn't want to do (homework, chores, stop playing his ...
35 votes
11 answers
13k views

What's an appropriate age to involve kids in life changing decisions?

My wife and myself have very different views on bringing up our kids. Our differences and different ways of handling problems is tearing the family apart. My kids are about 6 years old (girl) and 10 ...
  • 631
0 votes
0 answers
101 views

How to help my 8-year-old son who is not potty trained whatsoever? [duplicate]

My 8-year-old son has regressed in his potty training. He was fully potty trained when he was 4 or 5, then slowly stopped. Now he won't use the bathroom at all. He's in second grade and has to wear ...
  • 1
4 votes
2 answers
248 views

What to do when an 8-year-old is not motivated by rewards?

When I want to get something done by my 8-year-old, I offer rewards for that activity, but still the rewards don't motivate him to do that task. The rewards are something that he loves the most, for ...
11 votes
4 answers
1k views

Overcoming an irrational fear of long guns

My 10 year old daughter has developed an acute fear of long guns. This is problematic because we go shooting at the range where I've been showing her guns bigger than our little revolver. This is ...
  • 838
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why is it so hard teaching your own children and how to improve the process?

I have two children, 6 and 9 years old. I find it very hard to teach them skills or school subjects and I wonder if there are any tricks or methods to it? It seems my children are much more eager to ...
  • 263
7 votes
6 answers
518 views

Completing the homework - how much is this in parents' responsibility and up to which age?

We have a 10-year-old child who is generally not interested in doing homework. He prefers to play games and watch TV. He's bored by homework which requires some patience and concentration, like ...
  • 421
1 vote
3 answers
401 views

How to help my wife's 9-year-old boy who has an unnatural attachment to his mother figures and lacked a father figure?

We are a blended family, between us we have 4 kids. Our 9-year-old boy was 4 when his dad left and I believe that this has presented him with a couple of challenges. Firstly, he appears to be stuck ...
  • 503
4 votes
1 answer
350 views

What do I do to get my daughter interested in presenting her science experiments at the science competition(fair)?

In my state we get the primary school aged kids (8-12) to enter a State Science competition. (In other states and countries - the equivalent may be a school science fair.) My daughter (9) has some ...
  • 2,243
0 votes
1 answer
277 views

How can I introduce discipline into my 8-year-old daughter's life? [closed]

I have an 8-year-old daughter and I have had some past issues with kids and feel a lot of guilt. So I really find it hard to believe that strict. But now it has got a little bit of control. She back ...
2 votes
1 answer
852 views

Why is my 9-year-old making up new illnesses/injuries every day?

My 9-year-old daughter is a sweet, talkative little girl who has a tendency to exaggerate things, but within the past two years her claims of different illnesses and injuries have steadily increased ...
  • 21
4 votes
2 answers
285 views

How much self control can an 8-year-old be expected to show under physical and psychological provocation?

How much self control can an 8-year-old be expected to show under physical and psychological provocation. I separated from my ex wife about 4 years ago. My son has been living with her for around the ...
  • 3,183
5 votes
2 answers
396 views

Framework for letting 9yo get access without hard time limits

My 9-year-old is in this situation concerning media: She has limited access to a family PC (restricted account with a time limit of X minutes per day). She uses that for Youtube and Minecraft. She ...
  • 2,540
3 votes
3 answers
395 views

How do I explain racial slurs to a 10-year-old?

I've got a 10-year-old daughter. She gets very good grades in school (sometimes even A+, rarely Bs). She already has quite a healthy knowledge of sexual education (the Birds and The Bees). She came ...
3 votes
2 answers
508 views

Supporting pubescent daughter's curiousity about "normal bodies"

Along with others in her peer group she has begun developing breasts and today asked if she could see her grandmother's breasts to contrast them to her mother's. This seems like quite normal curiosity ...
1 vote
1 answer
78 views

How to choose a psychologist to do a psychoeducational assessment?

I am trying to choose a psychologist to do a psychoeducational assessment of an 8 year old with no diagnosis but with attention issues. I have received a dozen or so glowing recommendations from ...
4 votes
3 answers
784 views

Ten year old is lying and seems to believe her own lies

My ten-year-old stepdaughter has recently developed a habit of telling bold-faced lies to avoid getting in trouble/having to do something she does not want to. How do we respond to this? Some ...
2 votes
2 answers
410 views

Friend kid problem

My friend and I have been friends for about 9 years. She has a son who has severe ADHD and my daughter is 5 and she has mild autism. When my friend is around with her son, her son is very ...
6 votes
3 answers
468 views

How to answer child's hard questions

I have recently found myself facing my sweet 9-year old cousin, who looked at me with those big naive eyes, and knowing me as the geeky aunt who knows everything, asked "why did the Germans do this to ...