I'm with you. The twos were angelic. The 4.5 to 5.33 and still counting, are much much harder. I now in hindsight attribute this to letting him run all over us, because it was so "cute" when he was little. We thought it was darling when he ordered us around with his adult vocabulary, or explained how something worked. Now we get an earful for not listening to him...because we trained him that way. We hung on so tight to every word and praised his understanding of things with awe. He got so much attention for being so smart, that now he demands it. I had my first negative social experience the other day with this. Playmates' parent who used to comment too on how "cute" it was that he read, or said such "cute" adult phrases, etc....now was very put off by DS using such phrases, while talking to her kids. What was charming at 3, is now annoying at 5. I hope that in time, he learns to temper himself for the situation...but I imagine it is a hard thing to learn. "Why did they love me when I was three and read to them, but scorn me when I'm five and try to explain some math to them?" But, even as the parent, I feel the same way. Being told by a five year old to exercise because he pinches a tiny bit of fat on my arm, just isn't as cute as being told by a three year old, especially when the five year old is ten times more demanding and used to being listened to. I think it is not just a phase to be outgrown, I think it is a stage to be re-learned. They are still cute and the apple of our eye, but not the world's eye... And they need to learn their place.