Strong-Willed Child

Strong-willed child.

“Your SWC has great potential. If you begin to look beyond the ordinary places, you may find some incredible treasures!” – C. Tobias

I’ve labeled Mason a “spirited” “wild” child since he first started walking, even used the word strong-willed before. Up until recently I didn’t give too much thought into it. Thinking back, the signs have been here since the beginning. He was a surprise pregnancy. He was a “planned” induction, but he had other plans, after we arrived to the hospital and got my gown on my water broke. Tried potty training, didn’t work, waited until it was his idea and he was potty trained immediately.

Yes, I’ve always had my different ways of dealing with Mason’s personality and parenting. But with only parenting 1 child I never really thought too far into it, I always just thought that was my parenting style and I just had a very active boy.

So, after this winter of getting numerous calls from the school, early pickups, talks with the teacher, over a kid that has not had a single incident at the school for 2 years. Medical issues crossed our minds. Medicine was the last on my mind, so before we jumped to all that I started a daily log of Mason’s food intake, when outburst happens, activities(too busy?), ect. I really wanted to rule out the doctor/medicine area.

Then came a big help, we had a student assessment meeting with the school, sounds kinda scary right? I can reassure you it was one of the best moves we did. The principle, Mason’s teacher, another 1st grade teacher and the counselor. Academically Mason was definitely not behind, to make the story short. He was trying to control situations to get what he wanted, boredom maybe, defiant, stubborn, getting angry. So far we’ve had 2 weeks of good reports from the teacher; suggested by the counselor he has a couple “things” he works on in class but what we think really clicked for him was kindle privileges for good daily reports(suggestion from my wonderful husband). I pray it continues.

I love my strong-willed child and feel blessed to be in his life!

Last night I started reading the book by Cynthia Tobias called “You can’t make me, but I can be persuaded”. What an amazing read! I’m only half through it but almost everything written in that book I can relate to with our life.

I loved this whole paragraph from the book, because it is SO true and makes you wonder!

“Dr. Breggin said that Newsweek had asked the questions: “Where are the great thinkers of the 90s? Where the Freuds, the Einsteins, the Picassos?” Dr. Breggin then responded with a sobering thought: “What if we’re medicating them?” Tobias wrote “When you think about it, all three of those great men would have fit most if not all of the symptoms of many learning disorders.”

I strongly recommend reading it if you haven’t yet and I will definitely get around to reading “The New Strong-Willed Child” by Dr. James Dobson that everyone keeps recommending.