Parenting can be confusing, child discovers their own conscious?

codemonkey

Shared on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 20:57

I've got an odd situation with my oldest daughter, maybe it's not odd, maybe it's normal. I think it's normal, but she has a hard time explaining to daddy what her problem is. So, here is the story. When I put her to bed, on ocassion, she gets scared (fireworks in the distance, thunder, whatever), and starts jumping on her bed and weeping. She's just turned 5, she can explain a lot of things about herself, but they don't always "make sense" to me.

So, she starts crying because she believes I'm going to yell at her when I go in there and she's jumping. I sat her down, asked what makes her jump and she tells me her brain makes her do it. there is something in her head that says she has to jump on the bed, or to crawl on the floor. Then she cries because nobody is there to watch her and she tries to lay down but her brain keeps teling her to do things.

My idea is that she's discovered her own inner consious sorta telling her what to do... right or wrong, etc. We all have that little person inside us with a silent voice that gives us mental cues and such. I think that's what she's trying to describe, probably nothing out of the ordinary. I tried to map the fears she has with the result of jumping, seeing if she jumps when she's afraid, and explain that we can stop her from jumping if we can stop her from being afraid.

Of course, there is only so much you can do, she's very creative, very fast to learn things and has a lot of my right-brain problems. I can scare the crap out of me using my mind if I want to, and I'm sure she can do the same, we have many of the same qualities.

Has anyone else had their child tell you their brain told them to do something and they can't stop it? Otherwise, she's completely normal, I think her fears cause her to do irrational things. Myself, I used to hide under my blanket and pillow when I was afraid. She does quite the opposite it seems. I told her that, made sure she realizes "daddy can be afraid too" and that we're all normal. I explain monsters don't exist, which she's fine with, but its the bumps and noises that sometimes scare her even though I've got a fan on to drowned some of the noises.

Anyway, gonna go check on her to see how she's doing.

Comments

kewljoe's picture
Submitted by kewljoe on Thu, 08/21/2008 - 13:53
I used to think about situations when I was little and I would do both sides of the conversation, off in lalaland as teachers would say: put him against the wall and he'll talk to it!!
Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 21:28
I've learned form my son that kids have their own kind of logic.
ProvingUnique's picture
Submitted by ProvingUnique on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 06:43
Your probably right, a parents instinct about their kids seem to be pretty acurate. My child was having speech problems, I assumed it was due to the fact that he's 4 and it's probably his mind trying to decide which words to use therefore he studders to fill in the gap. His speech teachers said that exact same thing.... so I support the "Parents Know All" philosophy!
Durty's picture
Submitted by Durty on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 13:10
One of my boys did that when he was younger. Couldn't explain exactly why he was doing what he was doing, so he said, "his brain told him to do it." I figured it was something like you said...he just was not understanding the compulsions that our brains can have to just do things. Nothing to worry about though...my son was able to understand later what was going on and after learning that just because your 'brain tells you to do something' sometimes you are compelled to do things you shouldn't be doing. So, even if she doesn't really understand why she is doing what she is doing, if she is doing something wrong you must still try and teach her that what she is doing is wrong. Otherwise, every time she does something 'bad' she will use the 'brain' excuse in order to get out of being disciplined...and that wouldn't be good for her in the long run. Good luck...she's just a little one and is going to grow up soon. And she is also damn cute now that I finally scrolled down to see what your background was, lol.

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