What to do when your child refuses to go to school? I would say nothing. You don’t do anything. Just keep taking him to school and mom-up whenever he throws tantrum every time you reach the front gate. After weeks of struggle to make my son go to school without any morning ‘war’ I think my effort is showing a better result now. Notice that I mentioned effort instead of patience. It’s because patience is the last thing to be in you when it comes to morning tantrum when your child refuses to go to school.
My son used to wake up in the morning feeling upset. He knew he had to go to school so he threw every effort in his blood to let me know that he didn’t want to go. Kicking, crying and screaming had become normal things in our house (but that’s not new). There were times that I felt I too would want to start kicking and screaming out of my frustration. By this time patience was an alien word. But then I mom-up. Despite this dramatic show I would escort him to the bathroom, showered him and got him ready for school. For this kind of behavior my solution was to move forward his bedtime. I put him on bed much earlier. He used to sleep at nine. I changed the time into seven. So now, after dinner he will soon falls asleep. He has longer sleeping time which gives him more time to relax hence he wakes up fresh in the morning. I can say that the morning war is getting quiet here.
Weeks ago, he would throw himself on the floor on our way to his classroom. Worst, he would run away and the chasing scene was actually pretty ridiculous. Imagine me chasing him who ran all the way in the corridor moving away from his classroom and we had his teacher who was after us. Every morning the teachers in his school lines up to welcome the students. Security are on the porch helping out those who are dropped by their parent. I would walk my son from the parking lot and he would hold my hand tightly, drawn his face in my skirt. That was probably because he was overwhelmed by that many people standing at the entrance. My solution for this was just keep doing it to make him used to it. Now, although he still refuses to shake hand with those teachers he has the courage to walk straight and relax to his classroom. These days he even enters the classroom without making any fuss.
As a mom I do realize that every milestone doesn’t come easy. But at the end of the day no matter how hard the struggle is, as long as we know that our child will be just fine, it’s worthwhile. Just plant in your heart that whatever effort you are doing right now is for the sake of our child’s future. This is my reminder and one of the thing that keeps me stronger every morning to wake up and face the ‘school war’ with my son.
Camille says:
I totally agree with you. Lucky for me, my daughter likes school. But when I was little, I didn’t want to go, and my mom would get all emotional and cry. Then she’d let me come home. I was sooo spoiled because of that, I wish she would have been more strict and made me go!
CuteCoco says:
haha..so nice of your mom
On a contrary I was a school freak. I was only 3 when I kicked and cried because I really..really wanted to go to school (the primary level, not kindergarten) haha..
Theresa says:
So glad that it is getting a little easier for you. Baby steps… It took my daughter a full year of gymnastics before she would go in without crying. Every week I would be the one leaving crying in frustration. Now she does so well. You’ll get there, my friend.
CuteCoco says:
Yesterday he walked all the way to his classroom by himself. He said “you just wait in the car mommy!” and there he went. I was astonished. I even ran through the other gate to peep to his classroom just to make sure that he really got there. And he did!