When did you know your difficult child was a difficult child?

[klmno]

I must be the oddball on this one. I really never saw tru "difficult child" signs until right before he turned 11 yo. Oh, I figured out that he was going to be a handful at 19 mos old, I saw that he was too smart for his own good around 4 yo, I noticed a couple of odd things that made me raise eyebrows at 7 yo and 9 yo. But, honestly, if the events that devestated him at almost 11 yo hadn't taken place, all the previous things would have been chalked up to "typical boy".

Maybe I just missed all the early warnings...

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

I'm with Diabolique. I knew that there was an issue with Tink when she was still in the womb!

 

[witzend]

When at age 4 he got angry at us for leaving husband's boss's Christmas party - it was over - had screaming kicking fit in the back seat and opened the door to get out of the car (after being told it was not safe and he could die) on the freeway at 65 MPH in the rain and dark. The fit had gone on for about 30 minutes by that time. It was horrifying all the way around.

 

[jal]

Age 2. When he would not stop biting one child and walk on the stomachs of others at daycare while they were asleep on their cots. He also would kick the teacher and say "go home now?".

I knew he was smart, but I did not know how extremely hard and emotionally crushing all of this was going to be!

 

[janebrain]

I think it was age 3 after her sister was born. She started having awful temper tantrums like I'd never seen and also had to have all the attention. I sure wish you guys had been around for me to talk to then--I think I could have handled her better with your advice and support. I had no idea what to do--she was nothing like her easy child brother and I was totally unprepared for the challenges of raising her. I remember just "knowing" that she was going to be a defiant teen and was she ever!
Jane