Haha what, no you cannot tell a child’s personality in toddlerhood. My shy/clingy but extremely defiant toddler is very outgoing and a really sweet, eager to please kid as a ten year old.

My toddler who was super quiet, very independent, and always at the fringe of social groups is now the loudest kid you will ever meet, very popular, and constantly wants to be with friends/people. Also defiant AF at age 8, while totally skipping the toddler/preschool defiance phase.

Anonymous wrote:Personality is set at birth. Maturity helps take the edge off, but each of my kids is who they were as infants/toddlers.

+100

While temperament remains pretty constant from birth, personality does change. Interactions with different environments/experiences (including people) can make a difference. Recent studies have shown that early adulthood is actually one of the biggest windows for personality change. Relatedly, personality factors like narcissism tend to decrease with age.

My 17 yr old is vastly different than he was as a kid.

Anonymous wrote:Core personality can be glimpsed from about 2 or 3 on. However around 5,6 kids have more anxiety and that changes how their personality presents. As they grow older and more self conscious you’ll see different aspects of them developing.

Very good point

Yes. However They will evolve but they will still be themselves.

Most experts believe that the first two years of a child’s life determine who they will become. Did your child experience a nice infancy in early toddler period.?

Anonymous wrote:Core personality can be glimpsed from about 2 or 3 on. However around 5,6 kids have more anxiety and that changes how their personality presents. As they grow older and more self conscious you’ll see different aspects of them developing.

My first kid actually had less anxiety around 4.5. He was very shy as an infant/toddler and then blossomed. He's the youngest in his class by a few months but always seems to get the "leader" type jobs in his 1st grade classroom.

Core personality can be glimpsed from about 2 or 3 on. However around 5,6 kids have more anxiety and that changes how their personality presents. As they grow older and more self conscious you’ll see different aspects of them developing.

My 7 year old daughter never liked me. Now she constantly says to me that I'm mean ( because I tell her to do things like it's time to do a bath etc.). She actually doesn't respect me at all. At school, she is an angel. There are days, that I just want to run away from my child. She adores my husband who lets her to do everything ( like eat ice-cream, not brush teeth, etc.). I think that I will never have a good relationship with my daughter. I feel sad already that we won't be close to each other.

Anonymous wrote:I have three kids. I swear their personalities were apparent in utero. Even the non stress tests and ultrasounds tracked with what they are like now.

I think so too. My kid who nearly kicked me to death in utero is a little tornado.

They have gone through many phases of change, but for the most part, my kids have had their personality since they were in my womb. I swear that when I was carrying my first, towards the end of the pregancy, felt like she wanted to bust out of womb and seemed frustrated that she was being constrained. And that was her as an infant - didn't like being swaddled, and was always practically climbing out of arms. She now has an independent streak. My second seemed like he would be content to stay in my womb forever, and that was him as an infant, laying his head on my shoulder, and putting his arm around my neck. He still reaches to hold my hand and is attached to my hip.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's decided with gene reassortment at conception, OP.

You can tweak it with behavioral modification, but essentially, personality is determined by genes.

- geneticist.

I hope this is true! I have two toddlers whose personalities I adore and I keep worrying they’ll grow into sulky threenagers or bad tempered teens or something. Hopefully this is a good sign for longer term family harmony…

They probably will, at times, be sulky threenagers or bad tempered teens. That's not inconsistent with any personality.