Waging war in the urban jungle

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Missing a page in the old instruction manual

I must be missing a page. I'm sure that somewhere, at sometime, someone has written step by step instructions for how to deal with this parenting scenario. I must need to go back and reread my manual...oh wait, there is no freaking manual! I'm on my own!!



My Kindergartner was very upset this afternoon but was reluctant to spill the beans. He said he thought I would punish him. After a bit of prodding and silliness-asking him if he cheated on a test or smoked a cigarette?!-he finally admitted he'd done something that involved "Martin" and an "ear". I asked him if he'd said something mean to Martin and he said no...he'd actually bitten the child, on the ear-ala Mike Tyson, without the actual severing of any body parts. WTH?! How on Earth did this happen?! He said they were playing he put his mouth too close to Martin's face and accidentally bit his ear. That he "lost control" of his body. Oh my goodness...what the heck am I supposed to do with this information? Surprisingly I did not get a call from the school, I assume that is because they realized he did not do this in anger, it was an impulse control problem. I'm not sure what, if any, feedback I'll be getting from this boys Mom...dreading that convo.... So, yeah my kid bit your kid....so sorry about that! Martin cried, Paulo almost cried, then had a five minute time out on the bench. So end of story...maybe? I hope!

He feels terrible. He was able to verbalize and identify, correctly I might add, what he's feeling as GUILT! **Side note, I'm really proud of his ability to identify his feelings!** But he has to learn that he needs to keep control of his body and that he cannot use any part of it, teeth included, to inflict pain on another human being. Basic lesson, hopefully learned. In the meantime I'm doing the only thing I can think to do, making him write a letter of apology to this child. Asking for forgiveness is hard and it's something we all need practice in!

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