Originally Posted by DeeDee
Originally Posted by bluemagic
My question would be why does he feel that others should 'fix' all his problems and why does he equate that with not feeling heard? I know he is still a kid but your son is old enough to take ownership of his dislike of school and to learn that mom & dad can't fix everything.

I'd make a distinction on a case-by-case basis between things that need to be put up with, and things that should be changed.

A child in public school is entitled to an "appropriate" education. Now, the tricky thing is getting to agreement on "appropriate"-- but if the child is not being educated reasonably close to his level, that IS a concern, and IMO should be addressed by the adults, in consultation with the child.

If the child is unhappy because he doesn't feel like doing school and would rather play video games, well, that's a "suck it up" situation. Very different story.
And I do know this, and I can't tell the difference here because I don't know the situation intimately. But it sounds as if the parent has been looking to see if he is getting an "appropriate" education. And she is looking for something different. Plus a kid doesn't have to want to spend all their time playing video games to not like school. Perhaps they just don't like the spelling work that is hard for them, but does enjoy other aspects of school. There is gray area here.. it's not all black and white.

I also see a difference between "you have to suck it up" and you aren't always going to like school.

Last edited by bluemagic; 01/24/15 02:11 PM.