Holding pattern

School starts tomorrow. Am I ready? Are the kids ready? Will this be a good year for them? Will it be a good year for me? I’m honestly not sure how to answer any of these questions. As I mentally review the personalities of my kids and thier particular challenge sets I see so many places that things could get bad. I also see so many places where things could go really right.

Today I go to an open house where I get to meet Link’s teacher and Gleek’s teacher. More information is a good thing. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen until after 4 pm. I need to fill the rest of the day with useful things rather than with waiting for the open house to begin.

I’ve been in a holding pattern for much of the last week. There wasn’t much on the schedule except waiting for school to begin. Tomorrow the waiting is over.

12 thoughts on “Holding pattern”

  1. We haven’t had any problems with LightningBoy in school…EXCEPT…
    dealing with BULLIES!!!
    We’ve told him that bullies like people who cower and react and are afraid of them and you have to not react and they’ll be bored and go away.
    What do you think? Have you had to deal with this?
    Do you have any good advice on that topic?

  2. We haven’t had any problems with LightningBoy in school…EXCEPT…
    dealing with BULLIES!!!
    We’ve told him that bullies like people who cower and react and are afraid of them and you have to not react and they’ll be bored and go away.
    What do you think? Have you had to deal with this?
    Do you have any good advice on that topic?

  3. I haven’t had a lot of first hand experience with bullies or bullying. My first instinct would be to gather information. If your son is comming home with stories of being bullied, then you should definitely pay attention. However as parents we also need to be aware that kids sometimes percieve things in odd ways and then retell stories in even odder ways.

    Last year Link told me that someone threatened to kick his butt. Further investigation revealed that it was an idle/comedic threat and that Link knew it wasn’t a real threat he was just sharing the words for the shock value.

    If the bullying is real, I’m not sure what the next step is. I guess it would depend a lot on what form the bullying takes. It would also depend on how much my son was being thrown off-balance by it. Link shrugs things off pretty easily which generally makes him an uninteresting target.

    Maybe you could check some books out of the library. That’s probably one of the things I would do.

  4. I haven’t had a lot of first hand experience with bullies or bullying. My first instinct would be to gather information. If your son is comming home with stories of being bullied, then you should definitely pay attention. However as parents we also need to be aware that kids sometimes percieve things in odd ways and then retell stories in even odder ways.

    Last year Link told me that someone threatened to kick his butt. Further investigation revealed that it was an idle/comedic threat and that Link knew it wasn’t a real threat he was just sharing the words for the shock value.

    If the bullying is real, I’m not sure what the next step is. I guess it would depend a lot on what form the bullying takes. It would also depend on how much my son was being thrown off-balance by it. Link shrugs things off pretty easily which generally makes him an uninteresting target.

    Maybe you could check some books out of the library. That’s probably one of the things I would do.

  5. Thanks. I think I will get myself to the library.
    LightningBoy has consistently identified this one boy as a bully for as long as we’ve lived here. (this bully LOVES Star Wars and might unfortunately LOVE Darth Vader… yikes)
    LightningBoy has described acts of intimidation like getting him on the ground and getting in his face so he can’t get up until the bully lets him… that’s a bully.
    I’m afraid that my not-so-little-anymore boy is really sensitive and will start to cry if someone talks to him “wrong”. (he perceived that his last teacher talked to him “wrong”, that’s another story altogether!)
    It’s too bad about the Darth Vader thing… last year this bullyboy sported a Padawan braid-tail… we were thinking of talking to him about what a Jedi is all about, helping and protecting people NOT being mean…
    but, he doesn’t have it this year and I fear he’s gone to the Dark Side.
    a mutual little friend of my son and the bully told LightningBoy that the bully’s weakness was talking about Star Wars…if he wasn’t so mean my son could talk his ear off about Star Wars. That same friend told the bully what LightningBoy’s weakness was: Being afraid of him!
    Crazy, huh.
    Wish me luck… I’ll start studying.

  6. Thanks. I think I will get myself to the library.
    LightningBoy has consistently identified this one boy as a bully for as long as we’ve lived here. (this bully LOVES Star Wars and might unfortunately LOVE Darth Vader… yikes)
    LightningBoy has described acts of intimidation like getting him on the ground and getting in his face so he can’t get up until the bully lets him… that’s a bully.
    I’m afraid that my not-so-little-anymore boy is really sensitive and will start to cry if someone talks to him “wrong”. (he perceived that his last teacher talked to him “wrong”, that’s another story altogether!)
    It’s too bad about the Darth Vader thing… last year this bullyboy sported a Padawan braid-tail… we were thinking of talking to him about what a Jedi is all about, helping and protecting people NOT being mean…
    but, he doesn’t have it this year and I fear he’s gone to the Dark Side.
    a mutual little friend of my son and the bully told LightningBoy that the bully’s weakness was talking about Star Wars…if he wasn’t so mean my son could talk his ear off about Star Wars. That same friend told the bully what LightningBoy’s weakness was: Being afraid of him!
    Crazy, huh.
    Wish me luck… I’ll start studying.

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