By Gail Gupton

Parents, do you have a challenging, perhaps precocious child that is difficult to handle?

If so, one part of the puzzle is in understanding that a child’’s personality will follow him through his lifetime.

As a parent, recognizing a child’’s individuality is of utmost importance. Every child is different, so even having a dozen siblings; we can never expect them to be carbon copies of each other or of ourselves.

I remember well my own daughter, who was a difficult child from the time she was brought home from the hospital; throwing her bottle across the room from the crib railing; screaming for attention, yet rejecting loving attention when we tried to administer it.