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Dinosaurs are always a popular topic for small children. It seems every child goes through a "dinosaur stage". I have seen this time and time again in the years I spent working as a daycare teacher. How do you tell when your child's interest in dinosaurs has gone too far? Here are some signs your child is obsessed with dinosaurs:

(1)He knows the name of every dinosaur that ever existed and can pronounce them all correctly. When you refer to a dinosaur as "the one with the long neck", he rolls his eyes, and says "You mean diplocodus, Mom!"

(2)You overhear your preschooler talking to a friend of hers about dinosaurs. Not only do they sound like adults, but they sound like adults who have degrees in Archeology! You find yourself having trouble keeping up.

(3)After spending the afternoon pretending to be a T. Rex, he tells you at dinner time : "I can't eat my vegetables, Dad, I'm a carnivore."

(4)She becomes frustrated trying to put a correct name and classification on Barney and Dino.

(5)He will only wear the orange t-shirt that has the dinosaur decal on the front, and the purple pajama pants that have little green dinosaurs printed on them. He insists on wearing this outfit to preschool or to the daycare. He has been wearing the same two articles of clothing for a week now, and you can't get him to take them off, even to wash them.

(6)You can no longer find a dinosaur toy in any toy store that she does not already own several of.

(7)His preschool teacher insists you come with on the class trip to the museum that has dinosaurs, fearing what your child will do when he learns that he cannot simply live with the dinosaurs in the museum, and does, in fact, have to leave.

(8)You find her correcting The Land Before Time movies when what happens is not what she learned in school about dinosaurs! She watches the Discover Channel more than Cartoon Network now.

(9)He can recite, verbatim, every word from all the dinosaur related books in your house, despite not being able to read on his own yet. He catches you when you "accidentally" skip a page.

(10)To get her to eat dinner, you have resorted to dinosaur themed meals. "Look, honey, those aren't chicken nuggets, they are dinosaurs! See how they are shaped! And look, that's not broccoli, it's little trees, like the other dinosaurs ate."

Learn more about this author, Jen Thorpe.
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