Does anyone else's children call themselves something their not just to get out of something. My son almost 5 has started calling himself a girl at bed time coz he seems to think he will get to stay up if he is. I told him that even if he wants to be a girl he still needs to go to sleep because girls and boys both need sleep. He then says he's a girl and I'm a boy and I need to go to sleep not him. Like he's trying to say he's me but using genders instead to get his point across because he's really stubborn about me always being mummy and he is himself so he wouldn't want to swap identity's just apparently genders will do the trick :/ I just tell him he can be a girl if he wants but not to call me a boy because I don't want to be called a boy (to explain to him not to force labels on to others who might not like it) and that being a girl won't change bed time though. I know he's not actually saying he's a girl at heart but I'm worried others will get confused if he said it to them to get a point across to them. Like people sometimes already mistake him as a girl but I'm worried about him being picked on if he said it around other children to get a point across. His speech is at a 3 year olds level atm so sometimes he has trouble explaining what he means.
3 Replies
That's a bit cute!
To be honest it probably won't come up around his peers as his peers won't be telling him to do things. So try not to worry.
I'd give him an age to focus on eg when you are 16 you can stay up late :)
My kids have all been speech delayed so I'm getting this. I'm looking outside of this.
Maybe he's wanting you to lay with him while he's going to sleep and hoping you'll sleep with him. Try explaining that you are the mummy and he is the child. And he needs to go to bed when mummy says so. Remind him that mummy is the boss and that the children listen to mummy. It's his bed time not mummies bed time. Mummy is an adult. Explain that mummies are girls and that daddies are boys or if theirs no dad use uncles as an example. Then tell him that mummy doesn't like being called a boy because she is not a boy. Speech delays are hard work but the more explaining you do, the more talking they hear the more they pick up on. Could also be that he just wants to be the boss every now and then. Does he play Simon says? Could be a good game to let him run the show without running the show.
If my daughter does something naughty she says dinosaur did it. My brothers were twins they always said the other one did it. I think its a normal part of being a kid