There are some days that I feel like the worst mother in the world, I think we all have those days but today was one of those days.
We recently moved to a new city, and my son has not adjusted super well to a new school and new friends. To be fair there are days that I haven't adjusted well either, I'm just 'old enough' to deal with my emotions and more often then not, pretend they don't exist. So I am trying to help my son learn how to discern when he can share his emotions and when he should pretend he doesn't feel them (see...worst mother in the world).
My son is a super sensitive 8 year old boy with a strong passion for justice and fairness and he is very compassionate. All amazing qualities that I don't want to squish. But with that often comes over emotional break downs, drama like you wouldn't believe and tears, oh the tears. So I find myself saying some of my mother's favourite phrases "suck it up", "Life isn't always fair", "you reap what you sow". Man is it hard to tell your crying son that he needs to tough it up before the school bus arrives. I can barely do it without crying myself, goodness I am almost crying just typing this, but he needed to hear it. He needs to know that there are times that crying is good and right and appropriate and then there are times when he needs to hold it in. School isn't as safe of a place emotionally as I wish it was. I wish that he could express everything that he was thinking and feeling and have his class look at him and say 'boy that kid is sure in touch with his feeling and he makes a good point, we should all care as much as he does", unfortunately that isn't the case. He is just getting to be known as the 'weird crying kid'. And it breaks my heart. I want to sit outside his school and watch him each day. I want to talk to each kid in his class and make them be his friends. I want to shake each teacher and tell them that they should make the kids in the class be friends with my sad little boy, but none of those things will help him. I want to tell him that one day the most perfect friend will just show up and come and talk to him as he sits there crying into his sleeve on the playground and that they will be best friends forever, but this is not an after school special. This is real life. If he wants friends to play with him, he may need to ask them to play. He probably needs to take a deep breath, wipe his eyes and for the 15 minutes that recess is, pretend to have fun. Pretend so hard and so often that before he knows it he is having fun. He needs to ask for phone numbers to create play dates, he needs to stay in class, instead of heading to the office to cry. He needs to change his attitude, even though it is hard.
And he needs to suck it up. And so do I, and there are times when you probably do too. As adults we know that we can't go around crying through meetings, dinner with friends or on the bus, we need to hold on to those emotions until we can release them with safe people, in a safe and appropriate place.
So along with saying 'suck it up' I am trying to create that safe place, here at home for him to release that sadness. I am trying to help him nurture relationships, new and old, where he can express those emotions without judgement or fear. I am trying to help him grow into a man who knows when to be strong and in that strength know when and how to express how he is feeling. I am trying to teach my son that his compassion and sensitivity can be shown to the world through words, deeds and acts of justice, not through drama.
And that is not easy. Thankfully I am not doing this alone. We have friends and family and a church family (past and present) who are leading by example as well as with words of encouragement and prayers of support. Even the school is trying their best to support him in this transition. And he does have some great friends here and in our last city who are keeping in touch and helping him be happy.
I will keep being that mother who tells her son to suck it up, and I will be there to hold him when he just can't and celebrate with him when he suceeds. This is just a season of our life.
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