ugh...stress eating??? NOT ME...nah@@

ok tomorrow is the day I have to register my son for middle school, our district is good for elementary school but the middle schools are large and scary I taught in one for a year..longest year of my life anyway we are trying to sign my son up for private school, biting the bullet and paying the $$$$$ so that I don't worry myself into a morbidly obese person again. I got his report card today and it has D's on it in academics and effort!!! D's in effort???? does that mean you are not even breathing in the classroom????? he is at my school and Idecided thsi year to not be involved first quater and we had D's in academics but higher effort grades, now this quarter we are seeing D's in BOTH?????? HOLY CRAP what school will take him with 1/2 the year in D's???? oh by the way his IQ was tested and he didn't want to finish the test and it was 148 with 2 sections unfinished. so it isn't that he CAN"T do it but that he chooses not too! OH MY GOSH I am sitting here literally thinking, where can I go for fast food on my planning period in 10 minutes...McDonald's, subway, Wendy's they are all within a spit from here and I SOOOOOOOOOOOOO really want to drwon myself in satrurated fats and the subsequent coma that will follow. BUT on the up side is it a good thing that I can talk to myself and ya'll like this and KNOW that this is not the best option and talk myself down from the ledge?? anyone want to homeschool my 6th grader???? ugh...I think I have a protein shake in the fridge.... off to find it and maybe go for a walk if it seems quiet enough in the neighborhood! nic

Of course these things are more complicated than they seem, but my initial guess would be that he is bored in school. It does not sound like he is a behavior problem, but I would suggest that you discuss this possibility with his teacher and counsellor. The "No Child Left Behind" edict has had the unfortunate effect of taking up so many resources for the trailing students that it has turned into "No child allowed ahead" in many cases. Teachers can just do so much, and it sounds like your son is definitely in the gifted range. Private school may be exactly what he needs if it is a challenging environment with a lower teacher-child ratio. Whatever you do, I'm pretty sure that a greasy burger and fries won't help any! (I know from having tried that so many times!) Good luck! Joy

my oldest son knew exactly what he had to do to get passing grades. he was an underacheiver with the ability to do so very much more. but he would have rather spent his time with video games and friends than to do school work. he was a good kid his friends were all geeks like him so we didn't have the fear of drugs or drinking. they were always in my basement den playing cards or this game called risk. now he is 31 with a great job just got married last summer and they just movedinto their first home they bought. he is in college FINALLY! and kicks himself for being the highs chool student that he was. he is doing wonderfuly in school. it jsut bugs him that he feels like he wasted his high school time and that if he'd done it then he could have been graduated from college now maybe working on his phd instead of finally finishing his bs. geesh i remember all those talks we had. did he listen??? not then! now he understands. don't give up!

I don't have any kids to deal with (Thank God)but, I agree with the fact that the greasy foods & carbs are not going to make it better just make you feel worse about it all in the end. Take a deep breath, talk to your kid, his teachers & maybe getting involved again is just what the Doctor ordered here. Maybe he is doing this because you are not involved anymore. Take a look at the big picture & then try to deal with it one-on-one & see if that changes anything. Good Luck & you can always come here to vent. Marilyn, the Bearlady

Hi Nic; I can certainly sympathize with you on both counts. When the stress builds, my first instinct is to look for the junk food. As for the kids, all I can say is that those years provided me with more stress than any others. There were periods during the middle and high school years where I wanted to strangle both of my daughters. The good news is that if you can weather the storm, they usually become HUMAN again!! Both girls are now in College and they are turning into solid adults and occasionally even admit that many of the things we "preached" in those years turned out to be true. If I can give you one piece of advice, it's this: Don't think for one minute that they don't hear what you say. Even when it appears that they are totally closing you out, they are NOT!!! I am constantly amazed at the things that my girls bring up now that I was convinced were falling on deaf ears then. Good luck and hang in there!! Mike

Ahhhh.... Nic..... You remind me of the years that my son was in school. I would rather stab myself in the eye with a ****tail fork than relive those years. The first day of kindergarten, Miss Prann was waiting in the classroom door for me to come and pick up my angel. He had organized a sit in to protest nap time. She declared that she had never had a worse day of teaching in her 30 year career. Every year after that, the teacher was waiting for me the first day of school to pick up my little blessing. In third grade, we finally caught on that he was way brighter than the average bear and had him tested for the Gifted and Talented program. He failed every single question on the test, which according to the director of the program, meant that he probably knew almost every single answer because you can't randomly fail a test that bad. They offered to put him in the program anyway, but if the kid felt that strongly about not going, I wasn't going to force him. Maybe I should have. In fourth grade, he had Mr. Kunz. Mr. Kunz had a great behavior mod/reward program that involved the teacher passing out Kunz Bucks (play money with Mr. Kunz' picture on it) for good behavior and holding an auction on Fridays. Danny is a very gifted artist and my little counterfeiter flooded the market with fake Kunz Bucks and the program was cancelled. In sixth grade, he organized a Pink Floyd flashlight show, complete with blaring music over the PA in the middle of science class. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Teachers loved how bright and quick he was and hated how strong-willed and disruptive he could be. When I tried to transfer him out of their classes, they didn't want him to go, but then they didn't know what to do with him. I can't tell you how many times I got called to school because Mr. Kunz would actually end up screaming F.U. at the kid and chasing him down the hall with Danny laughing as he ran. I always ended up pleading a case for leniency for Mr. Kunz with the principal because I knew exactly how frustrating it was to deal with my kid. Teachers pleaded for Ritalin, doctors and psychologists refused because he wasn't ADHD, just over creative and bored. It doesn't sound like your kid is the behavior problem that mine was. Hang in there. At 22, Danny is in college, works full-time as the site manager of a glass company, makes more money than most people with a MA degree, and has a better credit rating than I do. There were times when I seriously thought that I would end up burying that kid because someone killed him out of frustration (probably me or his father). Just love your kid and hang on for the ride. You can't eat and hang on with both hands at the same time. Hugs, Connie

Thank you for all the support! We went today and he will have to take an admissions test. He isn't thrilled about that. He doesn't test well at all...tests take WAY TOO LONG@@ BUT on the up side, I spent the most time talking t othe math teacher and they are doing in 6th grade what my son is doing now in 5th grade. SO if we can get him accepted, he may excel in math for a year which may totally help his confidence level. Their science courses are MUCH harder that what he is used to and he was EXCITED about that! We met with the A/P counselor who tlaked to him about the European Trips the A/P kids take and the college credit...I was a bit surprised since he is only in 5th grade. the lady was one of MY teachers so she expects him to be a SCHOOL lover like his mom! She was telling him about the trip to England they take for British Literature, I thik trying to impress him or me. And he was like...OH My Gosh totally go to Warwick Castle and since you are there g oto Straford Upon Avon and see where Shakespeare lived adn the musuem there is very cool. I laughed and laughed he was so UN-IMPRESSED. She said "oh my gosh have you read about those places, I thought she was gonna pop when he said yep and those were the places I picked when we went to England, My sister picked Lego-Land but I wanted to see the castles and the theater stuff. BWA HA HA HA HA .... He is really ADHD, cannot sit still, actually he cannot sit in a chair like the rest of the world does, he climbs all over it but he listens and learns very well, he just prefers to not sit and do it! He takes medication to sleep, otherwise he DOES NOT sleep! He loves to learn, he is not mean spirited and wouldn't think of being mean to anyone other than his sister! LOL He just is incredibly impulsive with very little regard for his own safety. Connie your stories made me laugh and think very much of Britton. All his teachers LOVE him, think he is AWESOME when he isn't in THEIR class...when in their class...they don't really enjoy him so much! LOL I hope all the parenting really does sink in. UGH! Now I have t oconvince him that showing off how smart he is on this damn test might be FUN??????? how well do ya think THAT will work??? HA HA HA... I survived with a burger and I gotta tell ya I feel PRETTY proud of that...stupid cause I KNOW KNOW KNOW it would have made me sick but I still wanted it and really really wanted todo that... nic