[Ksyrup]

I will be the first to attest that gender only goes so far in explaining this problem. Our 5-year old, while not displaying some of the aggressiveness of CraigSca's boy, is quite the challenge. And, although our second daughter is only 3-months old, we can already see the difference in their personalities. The 3-month old smiles way more than the 5-year old did at this age, is much more laid back, rarely fusses, etc.

Just trying to get the 5-year old to pick something up off the floor is a major hassle. Every comment, suggestion, or command I give is responded to, either negatively or just with a nonsensical or rote comment (her typical response these days, regardless of what we've said, is "Yeah, right"). And she's picked up the annoying habit of correcting every little mistake we make - if I call my wife's minivan a car, she corrects me; if I call her skirt a dress, she corrects me. She perfected the "hand on hip with bent knee" move before she was 3.

It will be interesting to compare the two, but we don't anticipate these kinds of issues - at least to this degree - with the younger one. Our guess is that being the only child for nearly 5 years has something to do with it. She's definitely not a bad kid, and she's vey smart, which might be part of it as well, but she seems to be unnecessarily combative.