My Son Needs Me

I'm reminded each time my son comes home with a lot on his shoulders how much he needs me. Today he walked in the door, sat down with a grim look on his face and could not tell me what was on his mind.

What's up.

Shaking his head and looking down, I could see he was trying to hold back tears.

What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?

No.

Did you get into trouble at school?

He nodded yes and then broke down.

My heart sank. I listened to his tale and realized what he had been carrying around all day was really nothing too major. Phew. I was so glad to hear that what seemed insurmountable to him was really something easy for all of us to handle.

The hard part was convincing him. Isn't that the case? I too struggle with what seems insurmountable. Life is fragile and God always has my back, but on my own, it’s too hard!

.........

How much I want to take the hurt away from him. How much I want to tell the person who hurt him that she made the wrong choice and that she should not be bringing personal issues that she has with my son to school. She could easily have called me and talked to me about it, or better yet, she could have just said something to my son and me in person, especially because she lives nearby.

But the issue at hand is my son and helping him put things into perspective.

He takes things so hard and then he blames himself for making the choices he did. He is so hard on himself sometimes and I know exactly where he gets that from. I feel an immense amount of guilt passing on those coping skills (or lack thereof) to him.

This has not been an easy year for him by any means. In fact it’s been a year of challenges from issues with the principal to multiple bullying issues with the boys. And now his group of boys, for the first time, has started talking about the "cool" kids. OMG. This sucks. It really does.

And so it begins.

And here I am, trying not to blame the "cool" kids' parents.