Ok, so, the boys started school on Tuesday. We did all of our meetings for Liam's intervention plan last year so we weren't going to have to meet right away this year. Yay, right? Yeah, well, while we were at the beach last week I got a message from the school that the vice principal (a.k.a. the person who handles the intervention plans) had been replaced. Gah. I hate... I mean seriously loathe these meetings. I hate going in and telling someone what's "wrong" with Liam. Someone who's never met him and has to document his issues. Anyone who has met Liam can tell you that for the most part he handles his stuff pretty well and in between specific incidents you can't really tell he has any issues at all. So I pouted about that for five minutes and got over it (being at the beach helps one get over quite a few things pretty quickly.)
So we get home from Maryland, go to open house the next day to find out that the school psychologist whom Liam meets with once a week during the school year? Is going on maternity leave. Immediately. So Liam meets the replacement, whom he genuinely seems to like but again... will be starting over the process of getting aquainted with him and his brain. We finish open house and we get home only to have Liam randomly crying and whining about totally ridiculous stuff. Things he wouldn't have whimpered about in July are causing him total mental anguish now.
Of course, by Monday night, I was a wreck. Where other mothers might be crying because their kids are growing up so fast, I'm on the verge of tears because I'm losing Liam once again to the OCD and anxiety that school and all its institutional rules bring on. It's like I get the real Liam for three months of the year and the other nine months part of him is tucked away while the stress and anxiety battle the little defenses he uses to deal with it (the crying, the repetitive behaviors, etc.)
It's been only two days of school now and I already miss the kid I had all summer. I don't know if he exists during the school year and if he does, how I can help him stay.
3 comments:
I'm so sorry to hear this. Hopefully he can adjust quicker and feel better about letting the "real" him out to play with you during the school year (that doesn't make any sense -- makes more sense in my head). Hopefully, this is temporary and things settle quickly!
It's all about good teachers, counselors, and admin help, so far so good for me this year. I even requested a seat change already and it was done as soon as I asked.
Hope he hangs tough and relaxes.
Have you considered different types of schools, smaller schools, homeschool, etc? Lakota is so big that while they're generally pretty good some kids are bound to slip through. And if he really struggles that much then maybe homeschool would help him. Keep him involved with other kids in different ways. My heart aches for him, but he is definitely NOT alone.
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