Between the "highly sensitive child" thread and filling out my daughter's Pre-K application, I've been thinking. Excuse me here as I try to get my thoughts out, and if you have any advice or BTDT or especially books to recommend as I begin my 6 month maternity leave, that would be great.
The Pre-K application asked me to discuss what I perceived as my daughter's strengths and weaknesses. As I wrote through it, I clarified some things that had been bouncing around in my head, and it also made me realize how my daughter is so much like me. I read the "highly sensitive child thread" a couple of days back, and was just skimming the bullying thread, and kind of came to the idea that I would call Lucy "socially vulnerable." I'm wondering what I can do to support her and not have her suffer the emotional confusion and difficulty that I experienced
ETA: I just googled "socially vulnerable children" and that moniker doesn't fit Lucy necessarily. She's not shy, withdrawn, anxious as far as I can tell.
"Strengths":
* very bright--maybe gifted, maybe not
* very outgoing to both adults and children--well, most of the time. She is four and a half, after all
* can be a leader among her peers, and often wants to be
"Weaknesses":
* perfectionist
* very good memory (in other words, can't let things go!)
* very peer-oriented--concerned constantly about what her peers think; when excited about something, even a new t-shirt or a drawing she did, says things like "wait until all my friends see this... they're going to be so surprised;" easily saddened (and can't let go of this feeling) when a peer criticizes her ("Mae said my journal was boring")
* easily influenced by peers in terms of what they do, what movies they see, things they own, things their parents allow them to do
* very susceptible to the actions of the "mean girls"--comes home devastated if so-and-so didn't play with her
But she's not shy or timid or anything like that. If you didn't see the emotional reactions to things after the fact, you'd think she was a really well-adjusted kid. (Kind of like her mother... I'm all about impostor syndrome
)
Also, what is a developmentally appropriate peer-orientation at this age, especially when I don't like a lot of the mainstream (junk food, junk media) influences of some of her peers? How can I counter-act it? (I've read Hold On to Your Kids, but while it was very inspirational, it seems more practical for older kids.)
The Pre-K application asked me to discuss what I perceived as my daughter's strengths and weaknesses. As I wrote through it, I clarified some things that had been bouncing around in my head, and it also made me realize how my daughter is so much like me. I read the "highly sensitive child thread" a couple of days back, and was just skimming the bullying thread, and kind of came to the idea that I would call Lucy "socially vulnerable." I'm wondering what I can do to support her and not have her suffer the emotional confusion and difficulty that I experienced
ETA: I just googled "socially vulnerable children" and that moniker doesn't fit Lucy necessarily. She's not shy, withdrawn, anxious as far as I can tell.
"Strengths":
* very bright--maybe gifted, maybe not
* very outgoing to both adults and children--well, most of the time. She is four and a half, after all
* can be a leader among her peers, and often wants to be
"Weaknesses":
* perfectionist
* very good memory (in other words, can't let things go!)
* very peer-oriented--concerned constantly about what her peers think; when excited about something, even a new t-shirt or a drawing she did, says things like "wait until all my friends see this... they're going to be so surprised;" easily saddened (and can't let go of this feeling) when a peer criticizes her ("Mae said my journal was boring")
* easily influenced by peers in terms of what they do, what movies they see, things they own, things their parents allow them to do
* very susceptible to the actions of the "mean girls"--comes home devastated if so-and-so didn't play with her
But she's not shy or timid or anything like that. If you didn't see the emotional reactions to things after the fact, you'd think she was a really well-adjusted kid. (Kind of like her mother... I'm all about impostor syndrome
)Also, what is a developmentally appropriate peer-orientation at this age, especially when I don't like a lot of the mainstream (junk food, junk media) influences of some of her peers? How can I counter-act it? (I've read Hold On to Your Kids, but while it was very inspirational, it seems more practical for older kids.)
