My 11mo son has been exhibiting behaviors that has me wondering severely whether it is his make-up as a boy that is leaning toward these violent behaviors or is there something wrong with him. He has always seemed more amused and happy when activities that inflict pain are involved. You slip and fall, he cracks up. You bump your head against something overhead, he laughs like there is no tomorrow. You give him a drum stick and he beats on the back of his dd's doll and giggles himself silly.
Pretty normal for little boys who like reaction,, I guess.
Now..he if he sits with his back against the wall and lifts his head up, it might bump against the wall. If it does, he deliberately looks at me..lowers his head..and then sharply lifts it up again so that it will make a 'bump' sound. Then giggle once ever so proudly to no one in particular.
It's gotten worse. One day he was holding himself up and was standing perpendicular to the wall. He tried to tilt his head and instead bumped it against the wall... Now..when he sees a wall, he practically RUNS (well, as fast as he can crawl) to the wall, pull himself up and get in a perpendicular position and then fling his head from the opposite side towards the wall. ??

My dd never did this. She was always very the calm and 'deep thinking' type. Is it b/c my ds is a boy???

By Debbie on Monday, December 1, 2003 - 11:14 am:

Well, I have 2 ds's. My 1st has always been calm and the "thinking" type. Well, ds #2 came along and is totally different. He jumps, climbs, and runs everywhere. He has no fear. He must have a very high pain tolerence because he never cries when he hurts himself. He is very rough,loves to jump on people and has a "heavy" hand. But on the other hand, he is as sweet as can be.

I don't know if it is necessarily because your child is a boy.....it just might be his personality.

By Trina~moderator on Monday, December 1, 2003 - 11:45 am:

My DS was a head banger at that age, DD wasn't. However, I agree with Debbie in that it's probably a personality thing, not a gender thing.

By Wells on Monday, December 8, 2003 - 12:33 am:

I've got two sons and a daughter. None of them ever exhibited this kind of behavior that I can recall. I also have eight siblings. I don't recall this kind of activity with any of them either although, I must admit, (since I am now 45 years old) it had been decades since I have been exposed to them as children. I suspect this is just part of his persona. Perhaps he will turn out to be the kind of person who jumps out of airplanes for fun??? At any rate, I wouldn't be too alarmed about this.