Moving into the tween almost teen years is really testing my resolve. I am going to have to hit the books to solve these problems. I’ve got the sleeping, tantrum little kid thing down but this age is all new to me and it’s hard.
I battled for an hour this morning with Grand Master D who insisted he was sick but I didn’t really feel he was sick enough to stay home. He’s had way too much time off school and his grades are suffering. So this morning I had the tough love going on big time.
I made him walk to school, he cried all the way saying he felt like he wanted to vomit, which of course he didn’t. I made him sit in the office and have a drink of water to calm himself (by this point he’d worked himself up to hyperventilating). I thought that if he was seen by many he might suck it up and get on with the day. My plan wasn’t working so I took him upstairs and we sat in the assistant principal’s office for almost an hour. I was trying to get him to calm down, which he did until someone came in and then he’d start again. He has a clear grasp on the dramatic that’s for sure. In the end unfortunately he won out, only because I had commitments elsewhere and I had to get on with my day.
I know there’s something affecting him and it’s manifesting itself in the physical but he won’t spill it. He is never sick on the weekends, naturally. I am thinking the transition from elementary school to middle school is a little more than he can cope with but I don’t know how to fix it for him. I really can’t anyway. He has to do it.
After I took him home, I came back and saw his teacher and got all the work he needs to catch up on and he will be catching up. I made him complete tasks today.
Next year is only going to be tougher and I know he needs to be pushed. I am discovering he has a tendency to not finish things, he starts many projects and never finishes.
This is a habit I need to guide him out of and quickly because I know that it will affect his life if he doesn’t have the capacity to follow through with things.
I welcome any advise from any parent who’s been through these years and survived it because right now I’m lost. I don’t know if punishing is the answer or maybe it’s sitting with him and helping him learn better study techniques, either way something has to give. I feel like a mean mummy but this can’t go on, my sanity is on the line 🙂
It certainly has been a hard year all round.