Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Destroyer

Curious if anyone else has run into this phenomenon...the gt child who seems to just destroy EVERYTHING in their path.
I have several brothers and sisters and we were always getting into trouble on one thing or another. But the most obviously gt of the lot was literally nicknamed The Destroyer by dad.
After I married DH (hg+) and we had ds, DH told me that his nickname was the destroyer. I thought this was a little unfair not to have said anything to me before we got married!
Although this conversation started in relation to child 1, child 2 has really surpassed all expectations in this regard.
(dd2.5) (I know it's not a very nice nickname...)

Anyone else seen this in action with gt or nd kids?

Oh my gosh, DD2 is absolutely "the destroyer"! And she is so *quiet* about it. You turn your back for 2 seconds (or go to the bathroom, or blink or..) and she has completely trashed an entire room. I sat down to work with DS6 with school one day with her running around near me, I realized she had been quiet for a minute and went to check on her- she had opened the refrigerator, taken out the flour and spread it all across the kitchen floor. I was literally 10 feet away from her, just not in direct line of sight.

She's only 2 (in 3 days) so I can't say for certain, but she seems to be more GT than the DS6 and DS4. At barely 2 the boys knew a lot, but it was just regular preschool knowledge, early. She seems much more active and self-directed in her acquisition of knowledge- she explores because those are the things she wants to understand, she takes things apart to see how they're made, she tears things up to see what happens. She just seems to have a more mature understanding of the world than the boys did- for instance, she would never run into the road because she gets that the cars are big and she's little. At 2 both boys were still giving me heart attacks in parking lots, despite constant talks about the dangers of running in the road. They would say things like "I'll tell the car to stop and it won't hit me!". She gets that it doesn't work that way.

But, I swear, she's going to make me go completely gray before she's 5!

When he was a little over a year old, DS4 reached up inside the wall of a 4-year-long child-proofed room through a tiny hole in the fireplace (which has a cast-iron stove in it) and pulled fiberglass insulation out of the wall. We only figured out what had happened when we saw the insulation in his hand, and asked him where he had gotten it. We never would have figured it out otherwise!

About that same age, he also locked me out of our master suite. By the time I got the door unlocked, he had his arm wet to the shoulder from the toilet, he had a penny in his hand, and he was reaching for the outlet. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it! It's too much to be believed! I always joke that if we'd only stored drain cleaner in there, he could have dug that out and had it ready to be swallowed, allowing him to hit the jackpot of ways a child can hurt himself!

Now, he never really tore up the house or our property, but he was always finding astonishingly creative ways to scare the fool out of me! He knew no fear--still doesn't!--and he liked to explore.

Not exactly the same, but similar, I think?

BTW, his older brother is HG+. We don't really know with DS4 yet. He might be GT or he might not.

Dunno if that helps at all...

Hi, my name is Incogneato,,,,,and I am a Destroyer........

LOL!

Yes, that was me, but I don't ever remember what I had done to "wreck" whatever it is I wrecked, I just remember getting yelled at all the time.

DD6 is our adorable little destroyer.

Let me attempt to speak for the destroyers of the world. Now, obviously I can't speak for your children, however, I am quite immature, so I consider myself an expert on child-like thinking.

I'm pretty sure when DD took a ball point pen and dug it into my dining room table and pulled it part way across, she wasn't acting in a hostile manner. When I asked her why she did it she said: I wanted to see what would happen.

We say destroy. They say investigate.

Now, we have boundaries and rules of course. There are things that are off limits to their "investigations". But I try to remember when my six year old wrecks our stuff, it's not fulfillment of a personal vendetta against us.

I never buy anything full price: clothes, toys, food, whatever. So when DD dumps spaghetti sauce on her white shirt to see what random designs it will make it takes just a little of the sting out if it.
I even buy scratch and dent furniture for very low prices and fix it up at home. No one has noticed(or at least hasn't mentioned it ). So when the inevitable happens, it doesn't bother me as much.

Oh boy, Houston we have a problem. I can't not call you out: Queen of Denial!!!!!!!!!

Please forgive me, I do this out of love for you, my friend..

LOL! Thanks! It's good to have friends.

And for the record, I'm not saying he's NOT GT, I'm just saying I'm not sure yet! :p

I will say that he has taken a deep interest in DH's hobby of making soap from scratch. He knows all the ingredients that go into every batch, and DH has made 13 different batches, all with very different ingredients! That has led me to think maybe there's more there than meets the eye...and maybe chemistry is his thing! So that wouldn't be quite so obvious a gift for a 4yo, and I might not see it as easily yet. Not a lot of opportunities for 4yos to practice chemistry!

Anyway, I digress. Sorry chris1234. Please return to your regularly scheduled thread now...

I didn't say he was GT either. I said he was HG!


Oh dear, this really is quite serious(tongue in cheek)


Actually I think it relates quite well. My DD's are quite opposite. Think Rhoades Scholar vs. Steve Jobs. The Rhoades Scholar gets tons of "respect" at school for academics.
Ms.Jobs gets hardly any. This destroyer/investigator/creative behavior of hers is not recognized by the school as gifted.

However, the gifted specialist our family works with has said she is at LEAST as intelligent as sister. Hmmmm............

Good point. Thanks for tying my *potential* GT denial back to the topic at hand!

One of my kids was taking apart ballpoint pens and disassembling toys from before age one. She has grown into a chaotic individual who leaves a path of wreckage behind her...she has NO sense of order and the first thing she does with a clean room is spread toys or books all over it. Not sure if she really qualifies as a destroyer, but she is the one most fitting the label in my house!

I love those kids!! If she can learn to harness that chaotic intensity she will be an unstoppable force when she grows up.

GO Lorel's DD!!!