I posted late last year, multiple times, after we joined. One of our sons had been expelled from his private school over really garden variety ASD-1-type behaviors. We placed him in public school and the first few months went so well, and honestly, we were so emotionally exhausted from all that came before, that we just really enjoyed it for a while. Now our guy has run into significant social problems at school. The kids think he's "weird" and he's gone into defense mode and become more impulsive in asking questions and saying "inappropriate" things in class. The school appears more than ready to be helpful, unlike his old private school. But our son is telling us he "doesn't care" that kids think he's weird. The problem is, he does care--he came home yesterday from school and spent five minutes bashing the driveway with big sticks, then woke up this morning and started bashing the floor with some big length of cardboard tubing. He's angry. I think we have to: 1. Make sure our emotional bank account is full of happy, with as many positive interactions as we can make time for. 2. Let him know that whatever happens at school, we're here to coach/support him through it and so is the support staff at school. And 3. Have the big conversation with him that it does matter if kids think he's weird, only because it seems to affect his mood and behavior, and when they think he's weird they appear to target him with insults and try to draw negative attention to him. I told him this morning, "Them thinking your weird should not make you feel bad about yourself, but bud, you do need to care because the way you describe it, some of those kids are targeting you." I do not know if this was smart but I suggested he might lay low a bit while he gets coached up and we figure this out. He had a couple of friends at his old school but none so far at this one. My question: How bad am i screwing this up so far? And what would anyone here suggest?

Posted by SteveVolk at 2025-03-05 14:12:35 UTC