Just before I wrote the title of this post, I had a funny memory pop into my head, so I must share.
You know the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? Well, when DH and I were still sortanewlyweds, I was going through a tough time and he gave me a sweet card that said "When life gives you lemons...
Put them in your bra! Can't hurt, might help!"
I have to admit, it really made me laugh and there is also an "inside" joke to boot - I think you can probably figure it out - some of us are not blessed with very large chests. Yeah, I knew you'd get it.
Now for what I intended to write about...
We have been experiencing some behavior problems with our now 9-year old son for the past 2 months. Not finishing school work, playing in the cafeteria, lying to his teacher, etc. Right before Christmas we had a meeting with his teacher and got a much better understanding of his behaviors at school. I mean, what 9 year old is actually going to tell his parents ALL of the truth until he is stuck with his parents and his teacher in the same room, ya know?
We have been trying out different consequences for said behaviors and talking to our son to try and figure out what may be going on inside his head. See, I am a therapist by profession and I do this type of thing on a daily basis. But dang is it hard to do with your own child! I know I am not the perfect parent and my son is not perfect, nor do I expect him to be. But I think I have a better understanding of why many people in the medical profession feel "helpless" or really freak out when their own family member is sick. Medically, these people do their jobs every day with no problem.
Our son is the oldest of our 2 children so this phase of development is new to me. Is anyone out there experiencing something like this with their child that is around 9 or 10? Or, if your children are older, what did you do if you encountered this type of thing? I'm not all that freaked out about his behavior because I am familiar with child development stages and he is pretty much going through a different stage than about 6 months ago. But I sometimes feel at a loss about what to do.
On a bit of a side note, have you ever had someone tell you they were "surprised" that your child ever misbehaved? I can count on at least one hand the number of times I have had someone tell me that, simply because our son is a "military child" and should be very disciplined (or something along those lines).Uhhhh. hello? Our son is a child and he's HUMAN, for cryin' out loud! I just want to make sure it's not just me that people have said this to. Because, if I am, then I guess I need a little more advice about parenting.
