My son started kindy this year. We noticed some changes to his behaviour, in a way of self esteem towards the end of term one. We put it down to a change to his usual routines and just becoming tired after a whole term of learning at school. Fast forward into term two, mainly around the last month our son is displaying signs of anger, low self esteem and what appears to me to be sadness. He is 4 and a half years old.
He was recently involved in an innocent at school where he was hurt by another child because a separate child told this first little boy to hurt my son. Following this I spoke to the teacher who informed me that our son doesn’t have any issues fitting in at school, is a delight to teach, well behaved and well mannered. However, following this incident and since the meeting with his teacher our son has informed us that there is a child who kicks, hits and threatens to hurt him but he won’t tell a teacher (it is is his friend). He was also pushed over by another child and when to get help to fix his sore but instead of saying that he was pushed over, he just said he fell over. There are also a couple of other children who call him names in the classroom when the teacher is not there.
I am not too sure what to do. At school he is very well behaved and the teachers do not have any concerns for him. At home he is becoming angry, putting himself down and saying that no one likes him. He even calls himself stupid. He mentions that his friend (who bullies him) does all of this behaviour. As a mum I am hurting for my little boy not knowing how to help him. He won’t tell a teacher how he is feeling and has even hidden when he’s been upset because he is embarrassed.
Please share your suggestions with me. I feel like my little boy is a little bit lost right now.
2 Replies
Speak to the teacher again. If no improvement take it to the Principal.
Put your little one in a martial arts class, for his self esteem.
I'd give it a term and then look for another school TBH.
I am so sorry for your little boy. A very similar thing happened to my son but he was 5 and had started school. He didn’t tell anyone and it took a while to work out why he was crying all the time and didn’t want to go to school. How we found out was that one day he retaliated. He was called names and some older children pulled his pants down in the playground and everyone laughed. My son hit the boy that did that. This boy ran away and told the teacher and yep , you guessed it, my son got in trouble. He didn’t say why he did this. However when I questioned him he told us. I spoke to the school and like your son was well behaved etc We then had all sorts of things happen and it turned out that this was ongoing, my son got angry, upset . I spoke to his teacher , nothing changed, so went to the coordinator and eventually the principal. They all said what a lovely boy mine was but there were lots of kids who weren’t ! They would teach my son how to deal with bullies, ( but basically he would have to put up with it) . I didn’t want to be ‘ that parent, but decided to pull him out of the school after term 1 . Some people thought it was an over reaction but it was the best thing we did. So basically , my advice is.... you are your son’s advocate, he needs you to defend him . Write down what you want to say, make a time and speak to the staff, explain what is happening how this is impacting on your son at home, ask them what they are going to do to look after your son.... if the answers are not enough, move if you can. It’s was the best thing I did, and now my son is in yr 12 and tells me how awful it was at that other school. Best of luck