About two months ago Conner started having fits when he came home from school. Then, he started to give us a VERY hard time about going to school in the morning. When he started threatening suicide we knew there was something serious going on.
He is a very reasonable child MOST of the time. So somehow, through talking and more talking, we understood that there were many things he didn't like about school but the biggest problem was when everyone started to get sick at school. Yes, the stomach bug was going around. Kids were dropping out of school like flies and Conner knew it.
No matter what tools we gave him, like washing his hands, hand sanitizer in his pocket and looking up how to stay healthy online, he still wasn't going to go to school without a SEVERE fight every morning. When we finally DID get him to school, he would just go into the bathroom and cry for close to an hour. This happened for weeks. The teachers knew it and they helped a lot but it was torture for us. Hubby and I got so emotionally wiped that I would just start crying over the general mention of Conner and school.
It doesn't sound that out of the norm for some kids to fight going to school. In matter of fact, there were times previously that he had fought us simply because he would rather be home, doing whatever he wanted to do, in a safe and happy, nurturing environment. We had decided long ago that we couldn't home school anymore and we couldn't go back for multiple reasons. (Although I really miss home-schooling still). These morning fights were different.
Before he would go to bed, he would obsess about school and cry until he fell asleep. Then we try to get him out of bed and he wouldn't but instead just cry and fight and scream and tell us he "would rather die than go to school!". Hubby would eventually pick him out of his bunk bed and force him to get clothes on while kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs with red face and all. It was SO painful for us but we knew we had to do it. Eventually we would get him in the car, most of the time without breakfast (although we would bring something for him to eat on the way), without his hair or teeth being brushed. Everything was physical forcing. Nothing was easy and usually I would quietly break down in the car and try to clear up before we got to school. It usually wasn't until he was 2 minutes from school that he would eat his quick breakfast and start either talking to me or telling me a little calmer that he wasn't going in.
Teachers recommended therapy. We took the recommendation. We got George.
I researched as much online as I could about some somewhat local therapists who seem to specialize in childhood anxieties and family matters. George had a nice bio and a nice face so we gave him a try. We explained to Conner that he would give Conner some good tools to use in facing his fear of getting sick. Conner was all for it. George was our friend.
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