Children Who Brag

[boysx5]

I have dcg for the summer who will be six on Friday she drives me nuts I have posted about her before. The bragging is really getting to me don't know how to nicely say enough is enough. The parents are of no help they let her run their lives and don't see anything wrong with it. Whatever I have is never good enough she always has better even my marshmellows were not as big as hers. I only took her since I have her sister who is two and is going to be just like her. My dh says I should just ignore it but I can't it drives me nuts that every word out of her mouth is look what I got or look what I'm getting. My boys don't seemed bothered by her so I guess I shouldn't be. Thank God I'm getting a two week break from her after next week I keep saying to myself I think I can I think I can make it eight more days til the break

[TGT09]

That would drive me nuts too! I have an 8yo dcg that does this sometimes. I normally nip it in the bud by saying "that's nice" but I don't think that will work with this girl since she continually does it. I have no other advice, except to say I empathize.

[Janet]

Bragging

I really don't like it when children brag, because it usually results in another child getting their feelings hurt because the bragger is "better" than them. I treat that as a sign of hostility and I won't hesitate to put a bragger in timeout if I need to. It's a continuous effort to keep my dck's from bragging, but it's not impossible. What I've done with braggers who don't respond to "That's nice" is to ask them to please leave the room until they can talk to their friends and myself in a nice way. I'm all for kids being proud of themselves as long as it doesn't involve bringing other people down to raise themselves up.

[fctjc1979]

It sounds like she probably lives with people that are overly critical of others and she picked it up from them. People like this drive me crazy too. I have two of them in my family and, as much as I love them, I can only stand to be in the same room with them for so long. Since this is a child, if she becomes critical of something, I would just say, "oh, ok, I guess you don't need that then" and take it away. Although, I know that as providers we aren't allowed to with-hold food. I would do that with everything else though. I've actually shut my tv off once because one kid bragged that theirs was bigger. He spent the rest of the day dealing with the rest of the kids being mad at him because they couldn't watch their reading video. He never complained about the tv again.

[melskids]

i have noticed in my experience, that 9 times out of 10, braggers are the ones whose parents dont spend anytime with them. i have 2 right now, from different families, who are constantly bragging about what they have compared to my son. both children have fathers who dont pay any attention to them or spend any time with them. and i have noticed it with many other children in the past. i tend to just say "thats nice, all families are different and we all have different things we (enjoy, own, have, whatever)" or something among those lines. i see their bragging as a cry for attention, even though it is hurtful to the other children. so i just try to down play it as much as i can.

what i'd really like to say is " yeah, you might have better/more things, but at least my kid has a dad who pays attention to him..."

of course i would never say it, but i can think it right?!

[boysx5]

i have noticed in my experience, that 9 times out of 10, braggers are the ones whose parents dont spend anytime with them. i have 2 right now, from different families, who are constantly bragging about what they have compared to my son. both children have fathers who dont pay any attention to them or spend any time with them. and i have noticed it with many other children in the past. i tend to just say "thats nice, all families are different and we all have different things we (enjoy, own, have, whatever)" or something among those lines. i see their bragging as a cry for attention, even though it is hurtful to the other children. so i just try to down play it as much as i can.

what i'd really like to say is " yeah, you might have better/more things, but at least my kid has a dad who pays attention to him..."

of course i would never say it, but i can think it right?!

you hit the nail on the head these parents just work and buy them everything but never spend time with them that is not important to them very sad but true

[TGT09]

you hit the nail on the head these parents just work and buy them everything but never spend time with them that is not important to them very sad but true

While I agree that child "can" be like that. I was a spoiled only child and I do not remember bragging except on rare occasions as a child. Maybe it was the way I was raised in other aspects. However, not to disagree with myself LOL but I also think children have WAY more materialistic ideas nowadays than 30 years ago! I'm getting ready to make a post about growing up too fast just this minute actually.

[melskids]

While I agree that child "can" be like that. I was a spoiled only child and I do not remember bragging except on rare occasions as a child. Maybe it was the way I was raised in other aspects. However, not to disagree with myself LOL but I also think children have WAY more materialistic ideas nowadays than 30 years ago! I'm getting ready to make a post about growing up too fast just this minute actually.

hey- i was a spoiled only child as well, and an even more spoiled only grandchild. difference was, i was taught not to flaunt it in peoples faces. i i even consider myself a very giving person today. i think it all comes back to the "quality" of time you spend w/ a child, not the "quantity".

i also wanted to add that maybe the reason DC kids brag, is because of jealously that the providers child is home spending time with their parent, while the dc child is stuck at daycare. IDK, just a theory.....