Bad Morning, Good Day

My son has had a series of awful days at school this summer, perhaps due in part to the medication he was taking. He’s had major incidents almost every day, and sometimes more than one.

His latest bad day was this past Tuesday. And this one cannot be blamed on the medication.

This week, our area again suffered wide-spread power outages though thankfully our house was mostly spared this time.

However, that did not mean that we did not have any consequences. Many major intersections had inoperative traffic lights that made driving a nightmare. And though Kai had been doing much better in the car lately, the backups from the non-working lights was too much for him to bear.

On Tuesday morning, as his cab took far longer than usual to get to school, he got anxious and then verbally bullied the cab driver. When they finally arrived at school, he struck her. Furthermore, his frustrations apparently carried over as he later flipped over his desk in the classroom.

Coming after many other incidents at school this summer, dealing with one more was extremely frustrating. It is challenging not to be negative about everything we are doing, and to doubt if we are making the right choices for our son.

Yesterday morning, as I was haranguing him to eat his breakfast and get on the trampoline before the cab came, Kai had a huge meltdown, one of the worst we’ve seen at home in a while.

We could not put him on the cab in that state. I was frustrated and flustered.

My wife stepped in and spoke to Kai in soothing tones. She gave him deep pressure hugs and squeezes. Eventually he calmed down. He said that he was “almost ready” to go to school. And then a few minutes later he got into the car and Mom drove him there.

He ended up having the best day of school in recent weeks. And when I worked with him on some computer learning programs later in the day, he did a fantastic job, staying calm and focused through the difficult parts.

I’m not sure what happened there. But it was a good day following a bad morning, which followed a whole lot of bad days.

Hopefully that is a sign of better days to come.