Very strange, "off" behavior today
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Very strange, "off" behavior today
| Thu, 02-22-2007 - 7:46pm |
I went to pick up David from school today, and he wasn't in the small-group classroom where he ordinarily is.

Sigh. I find parenting my children to be exhausting because I have to watch every little thing I say and do all the time, and, when my vigilance fails to eliminate their quirkiness, I spend another dollar of mental energy trying to figure it all out.
A week ago my son tossed a kid's bowl across the kitchen quite impulsively, and it broke on our hard floors. He became so upset that it was "cracked" (I would use the word shattered, but I know better than to use a different word than he does when he is stressed-out)and had to be thrown out, that I couldn't even get to talking about bowl-throwing behavior or trying to find out what he was trying to gain by it. The only thing I knew at the heat of the moment was that he was NOT trying to crack the bowl.
Since then, he has explained that it was because the bowl had a picture of Dora the Explorer, and he doesn't like her. (His brother does, so I suspect that an impulse to harm to his brother's feelings may have been a motivator.) But he expressed extreme grief and regret that he cracked the bowl by scripting from SpongeBob when SpongeBob forgot to feed his pet. It is all about him and his hatred of cracked things. He immediately wanted to replace the bowl, which I said he must do, but using his own money. However, the fact that we could not go out right away and get the bowl on a school night 1/2 an hour before bedtime stessed him out, too. When he woke up, he wanted to go buy a bowl immediately, but of course he had to get ready for the bus. He had to wait several days until the weekend, and he could not stand the wait. All of his regret is about what he did to himself. The danger (what if someone was in the path of the bowl) or the feelings of his brother or others who may miss the bowl are way off radar.
Of course, I am babbling about my own experience. But I completely get the frustration of dealing with a child with no insight into what made him do something, and less insight than expected about the consequences of behavior. It does not sound like David enjoyed his day. He can't possibly LIKE knocking over chairs. Poor guy.
Sidney (Who is a wee-bit stressed but still wouldn't trade her sons for anything. Maybe after a few hours of alone time I will tell you about how cute and creative my sons are.)
I'm sorry he had a bad day. Kyle will draw on himself when he's upset at school sometimes too. One day recently I picked him up from school and he had drawn himself a mustach! I about peed myself laughing. It wasn't even a full mustach, it was more hitler style. :-O
I hope tomorrow is a better day.
Samantha
Oh man, that bowl story is sooooooo familiar.
Yes, he had a pretty good day today.
Evelyn,
I know if you could figure out the trigger that would be a big
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