Kid turns 7 in 2 months. What is normal level of “exuberance”?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what else to call it. Hyperactivity? Lack of sense? Some examples:

-I get a call from the dentist asking if they are speaking to Mrs. Larla. I say yes. DS pipes up and yells that they are speaking to Larla and Larlo here, and dances around. When I give him an annoyed look and walk into another room telling him to stop, he follows me in still hooting and hollering. The consequence is that I forget to check for an earlier appointment time and I have to miss Meet The Teacher unless I call back and get through to dentist (Not always possible).

-On neighborhood walk with dog, he walks into other people’s lawns, touching their plants, or else walks right on the area the dog is crouching to pee and scares him by mushing his face into the dog’s. On a 10 minutes walk I counted 4 reminders.

-Two days ago he climbed a pine tree against our advice. He did it wearing crocs and floppy gardening gloves so I’m not surprised he scraped at least 2 layers of skin off his arm and chest. When we went grocery shopping that afternoon he lifted his shirt to show terrible looking wounds and blabbed to everyone about it, and also told them about drinking juice while talking a bath. The cashiers stared.

Is this all normal behavior or is he on the hyper / nonsense side? He is also constantly talking. Constant. When we visit cousins he is the only kid who has a constant stream of words coming out.

[Anonymous]

7 year olds constantly talk.

The rest seems extreme. How are you reacting to these behaviors? you don't provide "advice" to a little kid doing something dangerous - you stop them from doing it, including picking him up and removing him if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 year olds constantly talk.

The rest seems extreme. How are you reacting to these behaviors? you don't provide "advice" to a little kid doing something dangerous - you stop them from doing it, including picking him up and removing him if necessary.

I told him not to. He did it when he was out with DH doing yardwork, hence the gardening gloves. We do pick up and remove if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Is he forgetful? Do you send him up to get a sweatshirt and he comes back with a book/toy/random thing and no sweatshirt? What does his teachers say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he forgetful? Do you send him up to get a sweatshirt and he comes back with a book/toy/random thing and no sweatshirt? What does his teachers say?

No he doesn’t forget things at school.

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old is like that. It can be very difficult to correct behavior, but for things that really matter (safety, etc), I have to really put my foot down and make sure he behaves appropriately. It can get ugly because he is strong minded, but it is necessary.

[Anonymous]

My kids were not like that at 7

[Anonymous]

Seems like both ADHD and attention getting behavior. Does he ease up if you give him a lot of positive 1:1 time?

[Anonymous]

He does sound a lot like my son who is 5 and has ADHD. I can imagine most of these scenarios. But ADHD goes across settings so it's hard to imagine it wouldn't be impacting him in school. With my son it also comes with emotion regulation difficulties and some struggles with peers. So it wouldn't be ADHD with this alone, may be just some traits of it, some hyperactivity that will likely go down by puberty.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, sounds like my ADHD kid. We would go for a walk and he literally would spin, walk backwards, skip, etc. Without meds he literally is unable to just go for a walk and being stern doesn't help, he can't help himself. He tries so hard to do the right thing or follow the norms or whatever he just isn't wired that way.

Try giving him a fidget spinner/rubik's cube/etc so he has something to fiddle with--it helps my son a lot. He says it calms him but also gives him something to do with his hands. But meds made the biggest difference for us (my son is now nine and started meds about six months ago).

[Anonymous]

OP, I suggest you read Dr. Becky's good inside. It won't change his behavior but it can help you react to it. A kids doesn't feel good when they are often getting annoyed looks from their parents. Would you feel good if you were being yourself and the person closest to you often rolled their eyes at you?

[Anonymous]

So the talking/moving doesn't bother me. The biggest red flag is him invading the dog's space. We don't touch dogs outside without pausing and asking the owner. And never while they are using the bathroom.

The tree climbing I'd ignore. He either learned a lesson, or he didn't, but he doesn't seem bothered so what's the problem?

The yelling while you're on the phone is not ok, but I would have asked the phone to hold one minute while I asked him to go outside or while I put myself in a room with a lock. Then an appropriate consequence would be given for not listening.

I'd also look for opportunities to be silly and wild with him. He may be looking for some connection that he's not getting otherwise. Exercise him like he's a small puppy. He needs to get worn out.

[Anonymous]

Could be adhd but I think you would also see the forgetfulness and/or spacey behavior. For example, my 8 year old will go in to the bathroom to brush his teeth, stand there for awhile, then come back out and say "what am I supposed to he doing?". I can also imagine or have lived with all of those other scenarios you listed. He has been medicated for 2 years and it helps but it's not 100%.

[Anonymous]

Not normal - you need to discipline him better.

[Anonymous]

I chuckled, he sounds fun. Talk to him about these things when you cuddle up before bedtime.