Her son sounds like my son. My son is super impulsive though. I don’t know if it’s an only child thing, a spectrum thing, a gifted child thing (not saying this to sound pretentious - high IQs come with really difficult behaviors and emotionally/socially immature kids ). or a lack of male role model thing or what.
It’s an issue I’m experiencing as well with my BF and his older kids. My son can be annoying. He wants to connect so badly but he struggles and ends up just annoying them. I leave just wanting to cry because I’m so frustrated with my sons behaviors - plus I deal with it without a nanny or much help. I have exploded on my son, tried positive reinforcement, spoke with social workers etc. I have told my son that he is annoying people because it gets so bad and I don’t want him to be rejected but then worry about hurting his self esteem too. I even had my son go back and watch videos of himsel with other people and he even admitted he was being annoying - but nothing works!
It leaves me in a tough position - because I love my son so much - but I’m scared about how we will blend as a family too. I think we are different in that my bf seems to be more ready for blending families then you are presently.
Anyway - I don’t have answers. Just a similar experience from the other side. . We tried a counselor but good ones are hard to find and we are still gonna look after this mess. I know I try to limit the time they spend so his kids aren’t too overwhelmed, but the counselor seemed to advise to get them together more so they are used to each other and don’t view each other as a threat.
