Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How to handle a stubborn, argumentative contrarian

DD5 has always been like that. I just chalked it up to her having a mostly cloudy personality....never thought it could be a gifted thing. Hmmmm. I try to just not argue with her. She will say the sky in not blue, too. Or about how a word in pronounced. Or the name of a rare animal.

My in-laws are the worst though. Ugh! They will argue with her until she backs down. Drives me nuts! I mean seriously, why would you "need to win" an argument with a little kid?

My older son won't back down. At 7, he is very contrary. It all depends how you approach him though.

Hehe ... okay the sky is blue comment I just can't resist this one. The famous question "Why is the sky blue?" has my standard answer of it isn't blue. Technically it is all colors absorb with the blue shade reflected back. (And yes this works on all objects) so when your daughter is arguing that it isn't blue she is correct. <evil grin>

CAMom,

Thank you so much for the article. It really is an interesting read. My 2 1/2 year old is already on her way and has been driving me nuts the last few weeks with what I call her negotiation tactics. Today it was cheese and her need for it. She insisted that she needed a slice of swiss cheese so I gave her a slice. Once done she said Now I need a slice of the other one. I argued she already had a slice but she came back with yes the swiss but not the other one. And besides she needs two slices. So I gave her the American cheese and she ate that piece and said she now needed the swiss ... Okay you already had the swiss cheese. Yes mommy (her response) but I didn't have two slices of the swiss. Great logic there with the fact that I gave in to two slices then she could argue it really meant two slices of each type. Yea ... I didn't give in to that thought process.

But the point is she is constantly finding an angle and negotiating at 2 1/2. I pity myself in a few years. But the article is very helpful in how I handle her negotiations.