Sunday, October 02, 2005

Parenthood

Parenthood. Who said it was hard? I am here to tell you it is hard!!

Up until now parenthood has consisted of minor dilemmas of diaper blow-outs, minor illnesses, a few major illnesses, a few broken bones, sibling fights, a 4-year-old run-away, etc. Nothing major. Handled most things quite well, I think.

Now here we are on to another dilemma…dealing with being called by the principal! My second grader, Gabe, had his first experience (and hopefully last) of being taken to the principal’s office. I get a call last Friday afternoon from his principal stating that she had just had Gabe in her office and wanted to share what had happened. Apparently another boy had been seen hitting Gabe while at recess. Both boys were taken to the office where they explained what had happened. Gabe had been teasing the other boy about liking another girl which made the boy mad. He then hit Gabe and was seen doing this by a teacher. As a result of this incident, Gabe has two days of detention at lunch recess and afternoon recess. So, for the next two days he gets to play on the playground before school and at morning recess only. Sounds to me like a pretty big punishment. He also got to clean his baby brother’s room this weekend (in addition to his usual cleaning of his own) as a punishment. (The principal told me the other boy has been taken care of as well. How? I do not know.)

My dilemma is this…how do you know when the punishment given at school is enough and how much more do you give at home? I do understand that he needs to know that getting in trouble at school is unacceptable and that he should always be kind to others and not tease. He knows this and has been taught this. Is he being punished enough? I just hate the thought of this being just the beginning of a long school career of phone calls from the principal’s office. How do we nip it in the bud?

Maybe it is second grade. He has had a harder time adjusting this year. He has been more social and talking more in class. He went from being on the principal’s honor roll last year to having low grades on his progress report and being in the principal’s office. What the…? He is only 7 years old and only had a two and a half month break during the summer! What happened? Was it something that we did or didn’t do? Is this normal for a child this age? Somebody help! I didn’t get the parenthood manual when they were passed out to all parents! I was probably stuck in the carpool lane with a bunch of screaming children!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay all I have to say is (not that I am an expert or anything and actually maybe you shouldn't listen to anything I say!) Your job is to teach you kids right from wrong and their job is to make the choice. Keep encouraging him to do what is expected of him and love him! He may just be your rebelous one... unfortunately they say every family has one. We all know who mine is! Love you!