In Kindergarten in Less Than Two Weeks: Serious Kiddo at 5.75 Years Old

A. His Schedule – We cut back on all of our kiddos screen time, but if he wakes up before us, Serious Kiddo is allowed to watch children’s shows until breakfast. He therefore always wakes up before us.

B. His Size – He looks so big and old to me these days, as compared to his younger siblings. Although I think he’s about average for his age.

C. His Personality – He’s sweet with his younger sister. But when asked what he hated, the first thing he thought of was playing with his younger brother, because his younger brother “always messes up what I am doing.”

D. His Favorite Things

• Colors: Still gold.
• Shows: He’s been watching an Indian cartoon called ViR the Robot Boy. Recently, at his request, we bought him the new Pikachu movie, which he’d been campaigning for us to buy for a solid week, maybe more.
• Toys: He likes toys that transform, such as Bakugan, and he still likes Pokemon.
• Time of Day: Probably still the early morning.
• Bedding: He doesn’t have a special pillow. He sometimes drags his twin-size stars blanket out to the living room couch (see photo above).
• Foods: Still as before – he likes sweets, especially chocolate. Some days he says he’s a vegetarian, while on others he’ll eat chicken. I remember not liking meat as a child too. He likes potato chips a lot.
• Activities: He still likes swimming.
• Animals: Still as before – dogs and sharks (Bear seems to be the one most interested in our cat).
• Heroes: He still loves superheroes like Batman and Spiderman, though he still doesn’t have a favorite. He also still likes Thanos, a bad guy.

E. Things He Does Not Like – Not winning. No one likes losing, but Serious Kiddo seems to take it especially hard.

F. What He’s Thinking About – He told me the other day that he’s “like a robot.” I don’t know if that’s the result of him watching ViR, but it did give me pause given that I once said the same thing about myself when I was younger.

G. Surprises – Sometimes his personality seems very similar to my own mom’s personality. Like two peas in a pod. One unfortunate surprise happened recently when we were on vacation at the beach – both boys wanted to buy new toys, a request which we denied. Bear got over it, but Serious Kiddo did not get over it – thoughts of toy purchases consumed him for the entire trip. We had plenty of new toys at home due to Bear’s recent birthday, and we did buy him some shoes and clothes on our trip, so I was doubly surprised by Serious Kiddo’s behavior. I know that in our current neighborhood, we’re one of the families that has the least in the way of money, but I think I need to expose him more to people who have less than he does, both to teach empathy and gratitude. Plus, his behavior spurred me to reduce his screen time (less toy reviews, less ads, more person-to-person interaction within our family instead of starring at a screen silently).

H. Best & Worst Things 

• The best things: Still he he’s nice to his younger sister. I hope they’ll always remain close.
• The worst things: When he throws what my partner calls “a moody” and what I’d call him having a persistent bad mood where various things trigger crying.

I. Family and Friends – I feel lucky to live in a neighborhood with so many children. I really love our neighborhood.

J. Parenting or What I’m Doing Differently – Although it’s harder when I’m sick or he’s sick (like now), I have found that with screen time comes more time for us to do simple things together. For example, a couple of nights ago I paid him chore money to help me clean up the play room. We also did a puzzle together for the first time in months. And once we’re no longer sick, I’d like us to start cooking together more frequently.