Competition Catastrophe

Today was my son's Parent/Teacher Conference. I was looking forward to it, expecting his grades to be pretty good. Plus, I was taking off work a little early to go, which is kind of fun. But I didn't expect to get a phone call an hour early, telling me to come and get my son.

He had had another meltdown. Two, actually. They said they were trying not to call me, knowing I was coming in that afternoon anyway. However, things got so bad that they couldn't hold off any longer.

I knew that morning he had seemed ultra sensitive and emotional. I just asked him if he had any library books to bring back, as I hadn't seen any the past week. He burst into tears and said that he had gotten upset at school, and they didn't let him go to the library that week. Yikes. I didn't know what brought it on, and I had hoped it was just a brief mood; one that would improve with a little breakfast and his meds. He seemed pretty happy by the time I brought him to the bus stop. But I guess the mood lingered.

Around 12:45, they were playing a bowling game in gym. He did not do as well as he wanted to, and he got very mad. They finally got him calmed down, and then he went on to therapy, where they had him compete in a spelling challenge with another boy. Not a good idea. If he's already had one bad experience that day with competition and unsportsmanlike conduct, it is best to avoid anymore competitions that day. Nathan was determined to win, but the game ended in a tie. In Nathan's mind, there was no clear winner, so there was no prize (sticker) for anyone, even though they intended to give both kids a prize. He just flipped out.

When I arrived at the school, he had calmed down considerably. He was still not himself, but he was at least not angry any longer, and not violent. I wanted to bring him home, but I had to be back at the school in less than an hour for the conference, so I brought him to Grandma's.

It was on the way to Grandma's that he admitted to me that he had hit someone. The principal. She had tried to restrain him, crossing his arms over his chest, and he lashed out. Double Yikes.

He was behaving himself pretty well by this time, and I stuck around until the last minute to see if he was completely past the meltdown or not, but he seemed fine at Grandma's. Dh showed up (I had called him on my way to the school to tell him what was going on), and we left for the conference together.

Nathan had a pretty good report card. It was not as good as the last one, but still, all E's and S+'s (like A's & B+'s). That was good news! Plus, the reports from the team of therapists showed some real progress, which was encouraging after such a disasterous afternoon.