Supernanny Rules

When a Child Becomes Disruptive

by Gayla on September 13th, 2007

Things are always what they seem.

Over the last several days, my husband and I have been working through some school issues with my son. Besides the fact that he cheated on a homework assignment with his buddies and got in trouble, there were other issues the teacher had made us aware of.

According to the teacher, my son had been disruptive in class. When she’d try to address the issue with him, “he’d cop an attitude.”

I’m not one to just take the word of the teacher, my son or anyone else without a full meeting to get to the absolute bottom of the problem and work on a means of resolving the problem.

As it turns out, there were two kids in the same class, one a former BFF of my son who obviously knew what buttons to push to get him fired up. And he did just that!

I never raised my son to be homophobic and I honestly don’t know where his ill feelings toward gays come from, but he is and I’ve accepted that about him. Well his ex BFF tapped this button by calling him names and later escalated into urging my son to visit a website called Pen Island dot com. When you put the full name together, you’ll see what it can be altered into.

This was apparently the straw that broke the camels back and caused my son to lash out in a somewhat loud and angry manner - verbally - not physically.

In the end, it was revealed my son had cheated because the cool kids were doing it and invited him in the midst of the activity and the disruption was being fueled in a way that could be removed or relocated so that it minimized the potential for further disruption.

When I was in school, I never told my parents much about bullies and things that went on at school. I made the commitment to myself and my kids that I would raise mine differently. I keep watch on my kids at school, I’m a hands on parent who likes to know everything that goes on in their daily activities. If they do something wrong, I want to know about it and punish them accordingly. If something wrong is done toward them, I’ll be there to make sure that whomever is causing the problem is addressed and hopefully punished as well.

If the problem doesn’t get resolved, chances are, I will see that person out in public at some point in time and I WILL seek to humiliate and embarrass them in public by speaking loudly and asking them to tell me WHY they did what they did. That usually does the trick.

I urge every parent to be in the midst of their childs school life. Know what’s going on even if your kid won’t talk. Email the teachers, the principal or even parents of their friends. There are ways of keeping an eye on your kid without suffocating them.

Tags: parenting, school, teens, bully, punishment

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POSTED IN: Parenting