lilac
08-19-2011, 02:08 PM
What, I asked myself does that mean, when the mom of this child first contacted me and described her 6yo son lovingly as a free spirit? (This is more of a vent of frustration than a question as we had a difficult morning).
I started with him last Sept only afterschool, and right from the get go it was apparent that this kid has endless amounts of energy... my son who at the time was 5 yo immediatly thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. The past year I have learned that this kid is incredibly difficult to calm down, he comes out of school running and screaming at the top of his lungs I'm not even kidding you, every day! My son, who is normaly fairly quiet, and calm, immediatly picked up on this and mimics his behaviour... they feed off eachother and get going so much that it is next to impossible to calm them down. Even on the coldest day in the winter I"m sweating from the stress of walking home with them! I learned that I have to have organized activities for afterschool if I want the free spirit to settle down. I can kinda handle afterschool as its only 2.5 hours but I am at the end of my rope after having to deal with this all day, every day, all summer long (plus I"m preg, hormonal and I'm sure slightly less patient than I normally would be). I cant possibly have organized activities for the 10 hrs that he is with me during the day! Normally during the school year, my son and another little boy play quietly during quiet time, and usually I dont have much of a problem, but since summer started and the free spirit is with us all day there is no sitting quietly ever. The boys know they are not allowed to wrestle at my house and after the last bout of rule breaking wrestling that ended when my son was kicked full on in the stomach (free spirit takes jujitsu and although he denies it was a jujitsu move I still have my suspicions) they are no longer allowed to play on their own in the basement. They destroy it, cannot stay quiet while the others sleep, or follow any of my rules unless I"m sitting on top of them watching their every move. (seriously they are 6 and 7, they should be able to play on their own while I put the younger kids down for a nap and eat my lunch).
The two of them together are loud, hyper, often not very nice to the other kids, and very disrespectful to me when I try to settle them down or discipline them. (free spirit will salute me, or snicker to the other kids, or giggle as I"m disciplining and of course my son has picked this up too). I've spoken to his parents a few times about it and I know they have spoken to him about it but it doesnt seem to have phased him. My own son spends a lot of time in his room these days b/c its the only way I can separate them and get them to calm down. Not really all that fair to my son.... if free spirit had a room here I'd be sending him there too....
The thing that upsets me by far the most is to see the drastic change in my own son when this 'free spirit' shows up at my door in the morning.
Thank goodness there is only 2 weeks left til school starts..... but I already dread next summer...
I started with him last Sept only afterschool, and right from the get go it was apparent that this kid has endless amounts of energy... my son who at the time was 5 yo immediatly thought he was the best thing since sliced bread. The past year I have learned that this kid is incredibly difficult to calm down, he comes out of school running and screaming at the top of his lungs I'm not even kidding you, every day! My son, who is normaly fairly quiet, and calm, immediatly picked up on this and mimics his behaviour... they feed off eachother and get going so much that it is next to impossible to calm them down. Even on the coldest day in the winter I"m sweating from the stress of walking home with them! I learned that I have to have organized activities for afterschool if I want the free spirit to settle down. I can kinda handle afterschool as its only 2.5 hours but I am at the end of my rope after having to deal with this all day, every day, all summer long (plus I"m preg, hormonal and I'm sure slightly less patient than I normally would be). I cant possibly have organized activities for the 10 hrs that he is with me during the day! Normally during the school year, my son and another little boy play quietly during quiet time, and usually I dont have much of a problem, but since summer started and the free spirit is with us all day there is no sitting quietly ever. The boys know they are not allowed to wrestle at my house and after the last bout of rule breaking wrestling that ended when my son was kicked full on in the stomach (free spirit takes jujitsu and although he denies it was a jujitsu move I still have my suspicions) they are no longer allowed to play on their own in the basement. They destroy it, cannot stay quiet while the others sleep, or follow any of my rules unless I"m sitting on top of them watching their every move. (seriously they are 6 and 7, they should be able to play on their own while I put the younger kids down for a nap and eat my lunch).
The two of them together are loud, hyper, often not very nice to the other kids, and very disrespectful to me when I try to settle them down or discipline them. (free spirit will salute me, or snicker to the other kids, or giggle as I"m disciplining and of course my son has picked this up too). I've spoken to his parents a few times about it and I know they have spoken to him about it but it doesnt seem to have phased him. My own son spends a lot of time in his room these days b/c its the only way I can separate them and get them to calm down. Not really all that fair to my son.... if free spirit had a room here I'd be sending him there too....
The thing that upsets me by far the most is to see the drastic change in my own son when this 'free spirit' shows up at my door in the morning.
Thank goodness there is only 2 weeks left til school starts..... but I already dread next summer...