Another "You're not alone!" from me. DS11 has been annoyed with all of us lately and we HAVE been doing fun things like skiing with him. He's an introvert anyway, so we've been trying alternately to have nice interactions with him and to just let him have alone time. I think I'm going to try taking just him out for dinner -- that always seems to end up nicely.
One thing I've noticed is that the inherent value in some activites that I think are important just aren't obvious to my DS. YOU know why grades and the EXPLORE matter so much, but sometimes kids are a bit more here-and-now, even if they intellectually get the consequences. They know that they need good grades to get into college, for example, and they truly do want to do well, but they just can't see how one test or one grade can end up being life-changing. On the other hand, I think sometimes I need to take a cue from my son and realize that not everything done poorly leads to dire consequences.
I hope your DD's feeling better! Maybe the perfect answer this time with the fever and the stress is to cuddle up on the couch to relax and recuperate, lots of fluids to get rid of whatever bug is causing the fever, and then an early bedtime.
Last edited by mnmom23; 02/19/10 08:44 AM.
