Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Competitiveness and Intensity

My ds5 has always been very competitive, obsessional and intense.

I find this very hard to deal with and have always tried to stress that all I expect is that he does his best, not be the best. I have also tried to emphasise that sometimes mummy just needs five minutes to herself.

He just doesn't seem to get this and some days I move around the house, upstairs and downstairs to just get away from him. Sounds awful I know. Anyway I have even been in the bath and washing my hair under the water and when I open my eyes, there he is still talking. On the really bad days it feels like the shower scene from psycho, when she pulls back the curtain and there is the grinning baddie! He interupts, talks over people, shouts and demands to know the ins and outs of whatever it is that I am discussing with another adult(and nothing whatsoever to do with him) I am virtually unable to make or receive a phone call when he is at home. He demands attention and interaction every waking hour at times. At others he will play with lego for hours, still talking and questioning but not so intense.
In the car he shouts out number facts, demands answers to questions and even gives directions(go left here, get in the other lane mummy, change gear, stop at the red light, second exit at the roundabout) He even shouts instructions to other drivers. He wants to learn to drive. He is five for goodness sake.
He also has tantrums because he counts things, lamposts, speed signs. On and on. It is like a permanent driving test.

Is this normal for g+t kids or do I have a problem on my hands.

We have to be at school at half eight for when the caretaker opens the gate so that we can not only be the first in reception queue but now the first in the entire school in the playground. Today when his class were filing in, he momentarily lost concentration and then noticed that several kids had already gone in. He barged past them shouting, I was first and pushed them out the way.

His teacher gave me a look. Because I am a lone parent I never get a break from him and have even resorted to putting him his car seat and standing outside the car door for five minutes. He still talks. I have even locked myself in the shed where he can't get to me and demand answers to his questions that I just don't have!

I really don't.

At times he can be supersentive to other's feelings and thoughts and others he can be super sized insensitive and downright rude. He doesn't seem to read the social signals, other times he has commented on something that not even other adults have picked up on. E.g when people are in pain and hiding it, issues arond access for disabled people is a big one.
He is one end of the spectrum or the other. Nothing in between. He barges in on conversations, is rude and demanding and interferes in everything.
His teacher complains that he is socially immature.Anyone else experience this?

Sorry for the negative tone of this post, but I am exhausted and hoping there is a btdt out there who will advise when this actually gets a bit easier.
I don't even know if he is gifted, although quite confident after reading all the posts here that sound so familiar. No other child in this area wher we live is even remotely like him and it is so hard to judge what is common to kids like him and how to deal with it.