Some children in middle childhood seem very mature while others seem very immature. During this stage, behavior may depend on the child's mood, his or her experience with various types of people, or even what happened that day. Parental concerns Parents with children in middle childhood may begin to re-evaluate what kind of parent they have been up to this point. Up to this point, children have always looked up to parents as the source of information, but now children judge parents more and label their actions differently. With children's natural curiosity and expanding knowledge, parents often find children question them more, and they are asked to respond in greater detail to larger issues, such as why they must work overtime, why some people act unfairly, or even why there is war.
Children continually struggle to understand new information that is difficult to understand.
In middle childhood, children typically spend less time with their families and parents, and families spend less time in caretaking, reading, talking, teaching, and playing. As children get older, behavior can be managed with verbal reasoning, deprivation of privileges, appeals to child's sense of humor, or reminders of the consequences of his or her actions. In addition to typical development, daily life challenges are normal. For example, most children will attend school. With school comes many transitions.