Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Worring about almost 5yr olds perfectionism.......

My daughter will be 5yrs old in Feb. and she has always been a perfectionist but lately she has developed some odd behavoir.

She has been hitting her self and even spanked her self when she does something wrong. (she doesnt misbehave much but sometimes she does)
I will go to correct her or put her into a timeout and she will just burst into tears she apologizes profusely and acts like she is a very horrable person just because of one little mistake i tell her its okay that no ones perfect we all make mistakes and that mommy makes them too.
Itsstarting to get weird enstead of crying she laughs when she gets hurt sometimes and yesterday she kept asking her younger brother to hurt her

im glad she is well behaved but i dont want her to behave because shes afraid of messing up or making mistakes...

anybody else have this problem???

Your daughter�s situation does seem extreme than in the case of our daughter. We did see somewhat similar behavior since she was almost two when she would put herself in time-out and count to 120 whenever she said or did something "inappropriate" (which met a lower threshold in her mind than in ours).
She still epitomizes perfectionist tendencies at fifteen.

it strange cause otherwise she seems so normal and well behaved and like a really great kid really i cant find many flaws in her except that she is extremely hard on herself and i dont understand where this comes from or why she feels that way its like she is talking about a completely different child not herself...