My middle son (8 years old) is starting to try to pull some crap over on us. Last week, we had the incident about the "bullying" at school, and his refusal to go in the morning. I took him in, trying to understand the situation, and we spoke to the Principal, etc. The next day things seemed fine. He was out a couple days sick (he really was, so we know it wasn't pretending).
This morning, he threw a tantrum, a fit, whatever ya want to call it, and refused to go again. The Wife called me, and I had her put the phone to his ear. HE was screaming, and wouldn't respond to me, so I drove over to the in-laws (where my kids go to school from). I was mad. Not angry, mad. As I pull up out front, the Wife is trying to get him to the van to get him to school - he was already late now. He is yelling, crying and fighting her. I walked up and of course he could see he messed up and got me there, so now her is trying to get away from me. Over my knee he went, and received 5 from hand. Then I physically carried him to the van. Once in the van, in my most menacing voice (which was easy, considering how pissed I was) I informed him we were going to be talking tonight, and that he is going to the school, with no further problems, and if there were more problems, life was not going to be good for him.
You know how parental threats like that sometimes work. I was hoping. They left, and I returned home. I called the Wife about 15 minutes later, and they were standing outside the office, for some "calm down time". I could hear him still sniffling and crying in the background. The Principal had already spoken to the Wife, and was aware of what was going on. As I sat here though, and I calmed down several notches, I got sick to my stomach. I mean it, literally. I had started to eat breakfast before being called, and it didn't stay down. Even now, I am still feeling that queasy, nauseous feeling in th4e pit of my stomach.
Guilt? Self-anger? I don't know... Not enjoying it though. So now I get to ponder the whole situation, wonder if I am being unfair to him, and decide on some sort of punishment. Though, now I think about it, do I know the whole story of why this refusal to go to school is there? Is it more than the "bullying" he brought up last time? Is it a plea for attention, though, I feel we give all our children attention, love and acceptance. It only happens before school, but once he is there, things are okay, and life goes on.
Once again, I just don't know.
PeacE
1 comment:
Tough one... I don't have kids... but I WAS a kid once... but I don't believe I ever threw tantrums. My observational self would say IF he is NOT throwing the tantrum merely to get attention, which I think he is not, then: 1) he is uncomfortable with a situation at school; 2) he in insecure about how he feels in this situation; and 3) he is unable to express how he feels about said situation. I see that he is only 8 years old, but times and schools and peoples are greatly different in this day and age. The biggest difference being the determination of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by both children and adults.
Post a Comment