My son is 8 years old and hyperactive, attention seeking, and annoying. From what I see from other moms, boys are just more immature. If he’s an only child and doesn’t have other kids to bounce off of (sometimes literally) they end up using adults for that. Which annoys the adults. It’s tough cause these are the kids that really do need that tribe.
I’m new in my relationship, but early on he asked me what I expected from a partner when introducing kids. Wanted to know about my parenting style and asked if there were articles I could share with him that might help. You remember my issues with last boyfriend, so this was like a godsend to me. But I think this stuff has to be communicated and spelled out early. I think general consensus is that it’s better to discipline separately until later down the line. Because my bf showed that he is thinking ahead, and looking out for the best interests of my son and us as a unit.. it makes me trust his opinion more and I’m more open to advise from him.
We already hashed out what we wanted for our future. Like he asked me early on if marriage was something I would be interested in again. We talked about how if we lived together what issues would the kids have? How would we give them alone time. Etc. I think this was important and am glad we did that early instead of playing the “I’m cool approach” this way we both know early on if we are on the same page.
Anyway, I think dawn nailed it. These are really important topics that should be hashed out if a future together is the goal. It avoids wasting time and leading someone on.
