Our 4.5 yo can literally NOT go more than 3 min without saying my name. It's driving me crazy!
I'm with her 24/7. She gets lots of attention, like pretty much constantly. Even when I set her up with an activity so I can have 5 min to myself (say for something crazy like going to the bathroom or talk on the phone with a friend or work on an unchild friendly thing in the kitchen) she calls for me through the whole thing..."Mom, look what color I made the house...(30 sec pause)...MOM! I got a little bit of crayon on the table....(90 sec pause....Mama, what are we doing after this?...(5 sec pause)...Mom, can I have a sandwich for lunch...." and on and on and on.... Now, a lot of the time I do in fact go & look at the house, answer her question, or whatever. But it does not matter how much I do that, she just never seems to "fill-up" on the attention.
Please, don't get me wrong. I love her & I love being home with them. So much so that I'm getting my Med Transcription cert so I can WAH rather than have to WOH. We're planning to homeschool too, so it's not like she's probably going anywhere any time soon. But the unending, unedited, ceaseless running commentary of EVERY single thought that comes through her head is driving me insane.
I've literally had days where I'm tempted to send her to school just for the break.
I wouldn't say she's high needs, in that she actually quite laid back with her disposition. She's never been one for tantrums or anything like that. She sleeps well. She's a wonderful, loving, helpful girl. Who just feels the need to inform me of every single thought she has and thing she does all day long. 
Also, she is very bright & I think that's feeding into it as well. Like she came up to DH the other day & asked him out of the blue, "Dad, what's an inverted plane?" Don't know where she heard it (PBS maybe?), but once she had it explained to her she went around for a good couple hours pointing out every inverted plane she saw. Again, sweet & wonderful, but intense.
I also feel bad because DD2 is VERY laid back. Even at 2 she's great at independent play, and sure, she asks me for things, talks to me, etc but not ALL the time. Sometimes I feel like she's getting overshadowed by DD1's intensity, so I'm always trying to compensate for that as well....
Another issue with the constantly calling for me (often loudly & intensely too...especially if I don't answer the first call or two pretty much immediatly) is that we're getting the boy who cried wolf syndrome. At least twice now she's been calling for me, just my name, no details, and I was kind of doing the "Yup....be there in a minute..." thing. Well, she'd fallen & really DID need help right then. But after hours and hours and hours of having my name yelled at me my initial impulse was NOT to jump right up and run to her just because she was yelling my name.
Oh, and I do have plenty of breaks. DH is home 4 days a week (3 days off, 1 day WAH, 3 days WOH), I get out at least one evening a month with my best friend, we usually spend 1 day a week at my Mom's visiting, couple playdates a month with friends. So it's not that I'm without support. It's more that even when DH is home or we're at my Mom's or wherever she's still "on" all the time and I'm her default person to go to most of the time.
Anyone else have a child like this? How do you handle it gracefully?
I'm with her 24/7. She gets lots of attention, like pretty much constantly. Even when I set her up with an activity so I can have 5 min to myself (say for something crazy like going to the bathroom or talk on the phone with a friend or work on an unchild friendly thing in the kitchen) she calls for me through the whole thing..."Mom, look what color I made the house...(30 sec pause)...MOM! I got a little bit of crayon on the table....(90 sec pause....Mama, what are we doing after this?...(5 sec pause)...Mom, can I have a sandwich for lunch...." and on and on and on.... Now, a lot of the time I do in fact go & look at the house, answer her question, or whatever. But it does not matter how much I do that, she just never seems to "fill-up" on the attention.
Please, don't get me wrong. I love her & I love being home with them. So much so that I'm getting my Med Transcription cert so I can WAH rather than have to WOH. We're planning to homeschool too, so it's not like she's probably going anywhere any time soon. But the unending, unedited, ceaseless running commentary of EVERY single thought that comes through her head is driving me insane.
I've literally had days where I'm tempted to send her to school just for the break.
I wouldn't say she's high needs, in that she actually quite laid back with her disposition. She's never been one for tantrums or anything like that. She sleeps well. She's a wonderful, loving, helpful girl. Who just feels the need to inform me of every single thought she has and thing she does all day long. Also, she is very bright & I think that's feeding into it as well. Like she came up to DH the other day & asked him out of the blue, "Dad, what's an inverted plane?" Don't know where she heard it (PBS maybe?), but once she had it explained to her she went around for a good couple hours pointing out every inverted plane she saw. Again, sweet & wonderful, but intense.I also feel bad because DD2 is VERY laid back. Even at 2 she's great at independent play, and sure, she asks me for things, talks to me, etc but not ALL the time. Sometimes I feel like she's getting overshadowed by DD1's intensity, so I'm always trying to compensate for that as well....
Another issue with the constantly calling for me (often loudly & intensely too...especially if I don't answer the first call or two pretty much immediatly) is that we're getting the boy who cried wolf syndrome. At least twice now she's been calling for me, just my name, no details, and I was kind of doing the "Yup....be there in a minute..." thing. Well, she'd fallen & really DID need help right then. But after hours and hours and hours of having my name yelled at me my initial impulse was NOT to jump right up and run to her just because she was yelling my name.
Oh, and I do have plenty of breaks. DH is home 4 days a week (3 days off, 1 day WAH, 3 days WOH), I get out at least one evening a month with my best friend, we usually spend 1 day a week at my Mom's visiting, couple playdates a month with friends. So it's not that I'm without support. It's more that even when DH is home or we're at my Mom's or wherever she's still "on" all the time and I'm her default person to go to most of the time.
Anyone else have a child like this? How do you handle it gracefully?
(never when DD was within earshot, though)
