Grade 5 Boys Who is this kid?

Ever wake up and think who is this boy and where did he come from?  For me, Grade 5 was one of those moments.

Grade 5 is that time when children start caring about friends, brand names, and fitting in. My son's fears about making new friends and not fitting in has made this glaringly clear, so much so I feel like I am a bad mother.  

My 10 year old son, my precious baby, is very outgoing, extremely extroverted and makes friends easily. His personality is usually a magnet to other boys who constantly find themselves at our doorstep. It is not unusual for him to bring home a new friend he met at the park or just outside our door. It's his energy, his sense of humour, and his attitude that attract many different types of boys to orbit around him waiting for his attention. At times he gets overwhelmed and shuts the door for alone time to recharge his batteries from the drain of others demands. This is why I didn't worry about him when we decided to move.  

This summer there was a change in him, he became worried about fitting in, what others thought about him, carrying about brand names and interests. He began to hide his magnetic personality Read more...

Well the good news is we got through it and we survived Grade 5. The bad news, he never did revert back to the little boy I once knew and has continued to pull away from me, become more secretive, and more independent.

Boys are different than girls because it is in their DNA to leave the family and become men. No matter what mothers do, they will still automatically start to pull away and continue to do so until they move out.

I drew from my own struggle with my son when I wrote THIRTEEN.


Is your boy 10?
How has he changed?
More about how we survived Grade 5.
Share your thoughts on how your son has changed in the comments below.
Post from when he was 13 and pulled away more, inspiring me to write THIRTEEN

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 Shannon Peel is the author of THIRTEEN and is currently working on Book 2 in the series about a boy, his mom, a cop, and an invading army. She has brought war to a North American town to answer the question, what if it happened here?

Click to visit her website.