When Simply Getting your Kids Out of Bed and to School is a Win
With today’s stressed out kids, even the simple victories count.
When I was in grade 6, I got a certificate at the end of the year — framed — celebrating my perfect attendance. In our class of 29, six of us got one. We hadn’t missed a single day of school all year.
In the past month, my teenage daughter has missed six school days and been significantly late for another five. She’s not sick in the conventional sense of tummy aches and head colds. She’s simply at the end of her rope with stress and anxiety.
My daughter simply can’t get out of bed in the morning. I go to wake her, and the idea of getting out of bed and starting her day seems to overwhelm her. She starts to have panic attacks and digs into the idea that she will not get out of bed and go to school. She says she will do work at home but can’t go to school.
Her situation is not helped by the fact that she can’t seem to settle down to sleep. Despite having an 11 pm bedtime, she said she can’t fall asleep until 3 or 4 in the morning. She lays awake, unable to calm her mind. So, by morning, she is exhausted and finally ready to get some decent sleep.
We’ve tried everything we can think of — emotional support and sympathy, punishments, threats. But I think what it comes down to…
