My 5/y, now in kindergarten, is a very healthy and lively daughter. But sometimes I think she is a real braggart. For example, one day she came back and said to me: “mom, there was a big tiger in the kindergarten today, and I helped teachers catch it with a big net. The tiger bit a teacher and made her bleeding, but it couldn’t defeat me, because I am so brave and strong”. Similar things happen frequently. I don’t want my daughter to trumpet like this everyday, do you have any good ways to help me, thank you very much.
Why do you want to stop this? She clearly has a wonderful imagination and that is not something you want to squash! And the fact that she has such amazing self confidence is absolutly wonderful! The only time I would address anything is if she starts playing the "I'm better than you" card with other kids. Otherwise, this is not a problem.
One of my favorite quotes is
"When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer. "
— Isaac Bashevis Singer
I think you should help your daughter write these stories down and then she can illustrate them.
she sounds awesome! So the question would be: was this a story she created .....or....was it a book read to her?
Either way, kudos to her for sharing it with you! I would have sat down with her & drawn out the story together to further embellish on it, hung it on the wall/frig, & enjoyed it together! & then saved the picture for a future book for her to look thru.....
how is this bragging? you don't think she REALLY believes she caught a tiger, right?
this is a child bursting with imagination, self confidence and excitement about the wonders of the world. please don't stifle that!
khairete
S.
What a fabulous gift of exciting story telling you have in her !! Whether it came from a book or her imagination....she has a unique ability to retain and retell later.
I recommend that you play into it. Don't ruin it with our real world, or real life, or it's not real sort of response.
Ditto Sue below - have her draw a picture and perhaps you can write parts of the story down.
What you describe basically sounds like she has great self-esteem and story telling abilities...so no, I would not want to help you crush that:)
Teach her the diference between fact and fiction, and let her tell the best most creative stories she can. She may be a famous author some day. My son, now 6, starts with "I know this isn't real, but wouldn't it be cool if..." She's a story teller, not a braggart. Be sure she understands that, and maintain a healthy balance between real and made up, and she'll be fine and the other kids will love to listen to her. It could be the start of something big !!
I think it's time you start reading tall tales to her for bedtime.
There's lot's of fun in reading about Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan.
This quote made me giggle as this is quite grand language for her to be using. It might be a phase, related to something happening at school somehow or it might just be who she is. Regardless, it seems a pretty mild problem and not something to worry about too much. I'd take each incident and comment individually and look at the context as well. Maybe watch her with other kids too as it may be she's just talking herself up to adults.
wait and see if she does this "bragging" in front of other kids and where it goes. if other kids clearly feel left out, inferior, alienated or otherwise saddened by what she says, then address it as such. "did so-and-so feel sad when you said that? why do you think she/he felt sad when you told that story?"
if it never reaches that point, then maybe she already has developed a sense of when and where it's appropriate to "brag." positive self-talk or reporting on things we're proud of is a good thin. if others are hurt by it, then it may need to be analyzed.
just my opinion. good luck mama!
