How can you tell when your child is crying out for attention?

Question

My son, who is 6, is exhibiting some very ODD behavior lately.
He is becoming verbally abusive to his 2 year old brother and myself. There is no verbal abuse in our household and he has never acted this way before now.
The oddest though is I caught him stuffing posicle sticks behind the couch - when I went to move the couch away from the wall to clean up I saw liquid on the hardwood floor, which I at first thought was popsicle juice, after smelling it I realized it was PEE!!! I asked him why and his answer was that he couldn't make it to the bathroom in time so he just went there. This was NOT a one time occurance, there was far too much damage for it to have been one time.
What is going on, I know this is NOT normal. Is he unconsciously begging for something I am not giving him? I'm a stay at home mom and I am with them all day long.
Does anybody have any insight or thoughts, or useful advice?

In response to Mr. lc firefighter, I am sure every parent can use parental counciling - we are after all human and prone to make mistakes. I have made many of them. I do take offense to your tone however. I am trying to do the best with what I have and know, hence asking this question to the general public. My husband and I come from solid educated backgrounds, there is no abuse or mistreatment. In a real sense I am flabbergasted that you could make such a statement.
I have to say that byrne110767 has hit the nail on the head. My son is extremely intelligent and loving. He usually only wants to please others. We are having to adjust to a new place of living and lifestyle recently - I was hoping that might be the cause. We moved to a different state away from family and my husband has a job off the Gulf shore that keeps him away from home a month at a time. I guess I want to feel as if he is only crying out for attention instead of there being some deeper problem.

Answer 1

LOL...everything you are describing is more common than you think. I have six kids and I am laughing with you, not at you. They all go through their phases of testing your boundaries and trying to get attention. One of my sons after being long since potty trained, started peeing in a few odd places, and after rubbing the dogs nose in it, I figured out what was going on when I found pee in my husbands slipper. Horrified, I shared it with my neighbor, and she laughed cuz her little boy was peeing in the bathroom garbage can and yard.

I will attribute it to one of 3 things, you can use your mom-sense to figure out which one it is.

1) He's always been very good boy, and you've given him lots of praise and attention. But Squirt is now 2 and taking up lots of your time and attention, and Six feels deprived. If it works for the terrible two, maybe it will work for him.

2)Hello, Mom, I'm six. You pick what I eat, what I wear, where and what I play, and tell me what to say (please, thank you, sorry). I want to start making some of my own decisions, and by the way, look what I can do with my pee.

3)You are the all knowing mom, and he's never gotten away with anything before. You didn't know what was going on because you were busy, but he thought maybe you knew and just didn't care, so kept doing it.

Either way, all of these problems can be solved with basically the same thing: some extra attention. There should still be a consequences for what he did, but start letting him make more decisions. "Which shirt would you like to wear? Would you like this or this for lunch? How was your day? I'm really proud of you for such and such. Definately focus on the big boy stuff he does, even if its something he mastered a while ago.

Good luck, don't let it phase you. Even after you come down on him, it will probably happen 2 or 3 more times because, mom it was just so cool. But it is a phase, so don't sweat it.

Answer 2

i think you need to go to parental counciling. you are doing something very wrong with the raising of your kids

bronzebabe.... a 6 year old kid learns his behavior from who? how can you blame something like that on a kid. it is the parents

sweety i was just being honest. you said yourself, you are human and have made many mistakes. i am the same! and would put money on the assumption i have made more mistakes than you!!!! if you accidently pay 10 dollars for a steak that only costs 8 dollars.... you just made a 2 dollar mistake that you can learn from. however! if you raise a kid that ends up on drugs, stealing,in jail at the age of 18, whatever the case may be..... that is not a mistake you wanna make or learn from.
yes, i admit i was a little too upfront in my answer. and i truely apologize. mabey you can try some self-help books or something like that. i know how costly professional help can be. the library has alot of books on audio cassette, mabey you can listen to. good luck and again i apologize

Answer 3

get him to a therapist NOW! something is wrong! he needs help!