Teacher Talk and Morning Rage

We had the "talk" with Miss M's teacher Tuesday. We were there for an hour. It went well. We talked about the academics first. She has some of the same concerns regarding reading skills but is still on the fence so time will tell on that.


I asked her what the school had told her regarding Miss M's mental health diagnosis. Her mouth dropped open and she said "nothing", which means she did not read the file. The stuff that is in there will follow Miss M from now till the end of time, you know "your permanent file". I remember that scare tactic when I was a kid. "This is going on your permanent record." Not mine, other students but still I heard it.


But I am veering off course here. Watch the road Mom! So we told her of the diagnoses and how they can affect Miss M in the classroom and etc. She said, "I would have never known. She is the sweetest little girl who does anything I tell her to do." Yeah we have never heard that. Sometimes I just have to bite my cheek so this stuff doesn't spill out of my mouth.


I said, "She is a sweet little girl who also has some really serious mental health issues." It is kind of sad I guess but once someone experiences Miss M's rage they don't refer to her as sweet anymore. That is scary anger coming at you when that child rages.


Last night at our congregation I had a part in the back "Jesus can protect us." Miss M had fallen asleep in her seat and so we thought it best to leave her asleep because when you wake her it usually isn't pleasant. I had a friend who was sitting behind us watch her and another friend who was sitting at the end of our row was also watching her. Miss M woke up. She was visibly disoriented and so they tried to help her. Not going to happen. She just sat there with big freaked out eyes. As soon as I returned to my seat a few minutes later the hysterical water works started. She was so loud I had to take her outside. I reminded her that "Mommy is never going to leave her" and "That Sister Slater was watching you the whole time and AJ's Mom too." She nodded yes and regrouped but I felt so bad that it happened. I know how scary those moments are for her.


I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place because if I had woke her that likely would have gone bad. I chanced that our best option was for her to remain asleep where she was, which didn't happen. Oh well life rolls on.


In fact this morning we had a rock n roll moment when Miss M decided to rage.


I haven't checked the calendar but it is probably that time. She has been dealing with small mood swings which she recovers from rather quickly. Yesterday she was really nasty to Nan in the morning and the deal is that if a kid mistreats Nan in the morning then they don't get the privilege of riding to school with Nan, Dad will take them in his van. It had been a while since this has happened and Miss M got it together once Dad made his presences known and reminded her that he could take her to school. Nan spoke to her again on the way to school and so it was pretty much a done deal that Miss M would need to test that this morning.



Sure enough. She was not very physically abusive, mostly verbally abusive. She did hit Dad a few times but he was able to block and redirect her. She was a little late to school and I e-mailed her teacher to explain that Miss M had raged this morning but seemed to be doing better now. When Dad dropped her off Mrs. Teacher said, "I got your e-mail, thanks." So that was a positive in that it confirmed for Miss M that we did let teacher know. There is no hiding what happens at home, everyone has to be on the same page. I hope that Mrs. Teacher won't feel the need to coddle Miss M, we will wait to see on that.