[AuntieCA]

She's the baby of my bio group and is now 8! and still does it. She was babied and knew if mom and dad were unavailable, all she had to do was ask older sisters. I think she lost a lot of oppritunity to learn to problem solve. Her power to play dumb is AMAZING. I remind you, she's my bio. No underlying attachment or other problems.

Took until this year for dad to catch on (he always said I expected too much of her, she was still so little.)

She was also just tested for the gifted program, which makes everything funnier.

Her character traits are sometimes so extreme that I warn everyone not to turn the new littlest ones into her (I knoesw it's bad).

For the last two days she has been crying because she lost her "towel for the summer". She's bemoaned "I looked everywhere" and cried, "I'm so stupid" trying to get sympathy/help. I finally broke today and said "If I find it you are in trouble." And guess what. . . walked right upstairs to her personal clothes hamper and there it was! EERRRGGG.

I'm not saying it's true in your case, but sometimes time to think about a problem and not recieve unessesary help is GOOD!! These children have been through so much stress, it's hard sometimes to remember that little stressors can also produce good results. I don't think I'll ever figure out the balance.