(I really hope that you guys are getting tired of my random, more life than weight related threads. I just have found everyone here to be so helpful and it's therapuetic for me to write these things out. Also, I love hearing from so many people from different walks of life and different places and backgrounds. So, if you're tired of me, I apologize, but I almost can't help it!)
I'm just at a loss right now as a parent. I'm a single mom to a 6 year old boy. I know every mom says this about their kids, but he is really a very good child and very sweet. Compared to other kids his age, he seems much more childish (as weird as that is to say for a 6 year old) and innocent...and I love that about him.
However, he has started having some behavioral problems at school. These incidents have been few and far between, but concern me. I feel anxious all day at work because I'm wondering if he's being good at summer care or school or if I'm going to get a nasty note from the teacher or have someone meet me at the door when I pick him up to tell me he's been bad. It makes me feel like a terrible failure, it's humiliating. These incidents have been physical. Once, he was punched in the face (that makes me sick and sad to write) by a kid who told the principal that my son had been making fun of him (very unlike him). Two other times, he started the fight and apparently for no reason. The teachers or caregivers said it was very random and couldn't really explain what happened...apparently he was not being picked on or provoked. What causes a generally happy, easy going, sweet kid to randomly hurt someone?
I can't help but think that I must not be giving him everything he needs. I feel bad that he doesn't have a father figure (or any males in his life on a regular basis at all)...is there any way I can compensate for that particular gap? Could that be causing him to act out like this? I just wondered what other single moms (or just moms) have done for their boys when they started acting out? What do boys need in general?
My brother had a lot of behavioral issues growing up and I feel like a lot of it has to do with how we were raised...or not really raised. He is now a petty criminal and an absolute low life...this is my fear for my son. That I will screw it all up and he'll end up expelled from school or dropping out. (Yes I realize he's only 6.)