Today when my husband picked my son up from kindergarten, his teacher pulled him aside. “I need to talk to you about, Bailey,” she said. His chest sunk as mine did when he repeated the story. After all, no teacher is going to pull you aside to tell you how charming your child is.
Apparently my son has been a bit of a chatterbox in class. In fact, his back and forth chit chat got him in enough trouble today that he had to go sit next to the teacher. I’m sure this was humiliating for him—I hope it was also a good lesson.
When he got home, he gave me THE LOOK. I gave him THE LOOK back. With no words, many sentiments were expressed. He knew I was disappointed, and I knew he wanted to hide. Instead, I sat him on the couch and made him tell me what happened. I told him I was disappointed in his behavior (not in him—there’s a difference that I think should be noted when parents speak to their children) and I gave him his punishment—no television and no toys the rest of the day. That’s brutal for him. Taking away the things he loves is the equivalent of tying him up. He was allowed to read and that was all.
Soon after he got home and I fed him lunch, he ended up falling asleep on the couch. I couldn’t blame him. Heck, if you can’t play, you might as well sleep.
How do you handle it when your child gets in trouble at school? For the most part, I’m happy with how I handled the situation. I didn’t overreact. I dealt with the situation and let him know I was upset with his behavior. I made sure he knew my expectations for the future, and I gave a suitable punishment.
Let’s hope it made a difference…