Thanks, 'Neato. Now I don't feel like the bad mom who is creating a totally dependent kid!! I almost went back and erased that confession, just because I was so embarrassed. My in-laws give me all kinds a grief about how DS8 is too dependent on us for some things. I think it is just part of his asynchronous development. If he is a teenager and I'm still doing things for him, then I will worry. But he is already focusing on how to learn to cook dinner and such for when he goes out on his own. For some things, he is more like a teenager than a small kid. And for other things, he is more like a four-year old.
I just have to remind myself of that some days, and let him be who he needs to be. That may be part of where any of his frustration and emotional meltdowns come from. He has one foot in the big-boy world and the other foot in the little-kid world. Sometimes, even he doesn't know know which world he belongs in. That would go with my theory of higher frequency of meltdowns after major developmental or physical growth. He keeps reaching for the stars and is so frustrated when he lands ungracefully here on Earth.
Last edited by ebeth; 09/23/08 02:47 PM. Reason: typo