Lately we’ve been back to our old morning struggle, with the little man feigning illness or inventing arbitrary excuses to get out of going to school. Yesterday I finally asked some probing questions to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately his answer was a reasonable one, but something I can do little about:
The grown-ups tell me what to do but I don’t want to do it.
I’m torn between being heartbroken and taking the hardline, telling him, hey, that’s life kid and you’ve got to suck it up. What’s the happy medium here?
This morning there will be a punk rock flea market/record swap happening, right behind Extreme Noise. And what will I be doing instead? Something totally out of character. I’m thinking of going to the mall. The Mall of America no less. On a Saturday. But the little man has grown a lot since last year and badly needs a new fall jacket and a winter coat. And I’d like a new dress for my high school reunion (next month). So how many punk rock points do I lose? Sigh.
Bonus: Moby saw American Hardcore. Just reading his brief post about it had me waxing nostalgic.
Plus: This Whole Cylon Occupation Thing is Starting to Piss Us Off.
And: I am all about the SquidSoap. Seriously.
4 Comments
can we get squid soap for work? maybe it will encourage us all to wash our hands more and stop passing around THE PLAGUE.
and i totally relate to the little man. i felt the same way when i was his age. wait, i STILL feel that way. ;)
+2 punk rock points. one point for being brave enough to tackle the MOA and another point for doing it on the first weekend of fall.
You know there are some things that can only be done at the mall. And I always think to myself if I’m going to a mall in the Twin Cities, wouldn’t I be wasting my time by going anywhere but The Mall of America? (Acknowledging that any trip to a mall has a lot of intrinsic time wasting built in.) Just a warning… Tuesday is Toddler Day.
This was exactly my Saturday…woke up wiith grand designs of attending the punk flea market; ended up spending way too much money at J. Crew at MOA.
Ah, the school issue. Hmm. At least you aren’t a pushover like my dad was . . . I was “home sick” nearly EVERY Monday of 4th grade. I mean, my mom had just died and that was tragic and I wasn’t, of course, taking it very well, but I had four-day weeks most of the year if I remember correctly.
I would ask the little man what he does like about school, and if he would miss doing those things or seeing those people. And, if you think it would be useful, see what - specifically - they ask him to do that he doesn’t want to do? Is it a routine/schedule thing, where he wants to continue an activity ad nauseum and it’s time to move on? Or is there something deeper, like a particular dislike of a teacher? In each situation there could be ways to explain to him why things are happening so that he feels more like he has a choice in the situation. I know he sometimes takes some gentle coaxing to do things, versus just being told to do something without knowing the reason why (just like a lot of kids). If the teachers know that, I bet they could help alleviate some of his reluctance to go to school.
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