reflection

I have been very quiet this week. Reflective more like it. The last day of school before Thanksgiving Kit had a bit of a melt down at school when questioned by his teacher as to why I hadn't signed something she sent home for me to sign. She pulled him out from Art to do it. Kit, being Kit gave her the reason that it was because of his nightmares and him not sleeping (all news to me). So after a phone call home, he was sent up to the school Psychologist where he apparently cried for an hour and told her how he was scared of dying and how he had people come and visit him at night and nightmares etc etc. She then called me almost frantic saying that Kit was deeply disturbed and I needed to get him psychiatric help. She told me I needed to call immediately to get him onto a waiting list.

Now, all this left me a little shell shocked. Matt and I have been aware that Kit wasn't his usual happy self at the moment, but put it down to things like the stress of his homework (which is massive-and stresses me out), the fact that he had a broken arm for the first 3 months of school and couldn't play outside with the other kids at lunch etc. I kept trying to tell both his teacher and the school psych that I thought the dream thing was a way he could express to them a real anxiety in a way that they would take notice (Kit has always been good at spinning a yarn).

Anyway after sleeping with him for 2 nights and playing him relaxation tapes before he goes to sleep, he's absolutely fine. I think the sleep issues (if they were really there) were a symptom. So there has been a lot of talking to Kit this week, and being nice and supportive and all that. And guess what? His stressors are all little things (homework, bullying resulting from his exclusion from lunch, general pressure from his teacher etc) that he didn't really know how to express and were building up to anxiety. Even just talking about it and having it all acknowledged by us I've seen a difference in him. We have parent teacher conferences next week (Matt's coming to support me) and a meeting with the school Psych and I'm also going talk to the Vice Principal about playground issues.

So all that has thrown me into a real spin over the last week or so. Fortunately I've had my now good friend Elise (the one I met in the supermarket) to bounce things off and she's a very sensible woman.

So aologies for my absence, but hope you understand. Being a parent is such WORK!!!