I think life is catching up with us. This morning Madeline was dragging more than usual, and when we were heading out the door for school I noticed she looked awful. I asked what was up, she said she didn't feel good, so we rushed Mia to school ("Oh no! But I don't want to go to school if my sister's not there too!"), and came back home.
I'm pretty sure it's a mental health day. As we chatted, it sounded far more emotional than physical. "It's just that my stomach hurts and I'm feeling stressed from all the pressure." All that pressure of being eight years old.
She'd been handling the move just fine, seemed to be adjusting like a champ. Then a few weeks ago I was late picking her up from her after school drama class. Seven minutes late, and she was in tears when I got there. Now whenever she goes anywhere she wants to know what time I'm leaving the house, how long the drive is, and what time I plan to be there. And it has to all work out so that my ETA is five minutes before she needs me. Seriously? Third grade and I've only been late picking her up once? Girl knows how to lay on the guilt.
Now she doesn't want to go to drama anymore, but for more reasons than just her mother's complete unreliability. The whole world is unreliable. The original teacher left for a funeral 4 weeks ago and hasn't been back. They meet in a different room every week so she worries that I won't know how to find her. And apparently the replacement teacher is always 15-20 minutes late, and there's lots of boys in the drama class, so it's mayhem until the teacher gets there, and even then the teacher has no idea how to manage the classroom. (We're dropping this activity.)
And then there was that day last week when she was sick and they couldn't reach me. "Mom, can you imagine being sick in the nurse's office for 90 minutes and not being able to reach your mom?" Like I said, this girl is good.
There was also a little trip to the principal's office last week that we won't mention. At least that wasn't my fault.
So all this pressure. It's a lot. I was hoping that Madeline would somehow dodge the anxiety genes threaded through her DNA. But I think we've triggered them.
Maybe a day staying home to play Wii will help. (You can just go away if you're going to judge me.)
2 comments:
remember last year with Oli, need I say more...mental health days are good...you are awesome
Even kids need mental health days, so judging here! I am also the only person I know who is constantly running late, so I'm impressed with your track record. Also, last month I was running some errands and didn't hear my cellphone ring and Liam had thrown up in health class and had to wait forever for me to pick him up. I was even bettering myself by being at the gym! I hope that Maddie is feeling better and is not as stressed, it's hard to be eight sometimes. :o)
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