((Humor Alert))
Can you give me that Doc Optimal's phone number, because once in a while I
need someone who will play the role of the bad guy so that DS will see how good he has it with DH and I. Oh wait - never mind - Boarding school is doing that job for me now, what a relief!
More seriously - I don't think there is a snowball's chance in 'you know were' that you dd is actually going to 'listen and obey' Doc Optimal. I love what she got out of it, and think it show serious maturity. Oh, and - if her medical condition allows, maybe it's time to consider getting a new MD? I think she's old enough to work with an Internist, who are generally considered the brightest of the primary care bunch, and if nothing else, usually very quiet by nature. We were so blessed to have a pediatrician who was more than OG himself and provided a firm, warm presence to those early years. Of course he was my Internist's Favorite Pediatrician.
OT - sometimes I thought that what my son really needed from me, was a fake birth certificate!
I asked DD after the appointment, "So what did you think of what Dr. {Feelgood} was saying in there?"
She said that she just plain doesn't think he understands that repetition and being told to do work over and over and over again is just intolerable, and that challenge and learning NEW stuff is fun. She also mentioned somewhat tentatively that she thinks he might not be right about waiting until college to learn "real" study skills via being challenged. (good girl!!!) But that she thinks he might have a point about having more social stuff going on. We just have to have a way to fit it in. She's got a LOT of extracurricular stuff going on, and she won't give any of it up. It all matters to her, and even trying to 'rank' them in priority order is hard, because they shift around. (Fair enough.)
When I asked her specifically about social fit and peers, she responded:
"Well, with kids 13 and 14, if I can get them to GIVE me that first chance-- you know, sometimes they don't, because they assume that I'm too little-- but if they give me a chance, or don't KNOW how young I am, they seem to like me better and better as they get to know me. With kids 10-11 years old, they like me really well at first. But they like me less and less the more they get to know me." (she was just thoughtful as she said that, so I asked her why she thought that was so)
"I think that when I start to get to know them, I mention books and ideas and jokes and stuff that they've never even heard of. It makes me seem weirder and weirder. But the older kids, some of them 'get' me, and even the ones that don't at least know kind of what I'm talking about a lot of the time. So not as weird."
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