These last couple of weeks or even months have been pretty stressful on my kids and John and I.

Rhiannon is trying to make her way through her first year of High School. She has made some new friends and found old ones again. Other than hitting a boy in an after school function and getting suspended for 5 days for it, she seems to be doing okay socially. She knows we don't want her to date yet and she seems to be okay with that. She likes having a lot of friends around her. Her grades are good so far too. She has two classes that she has a C and a D in.

Now Alex, he is not passing any of his core classes. He is in 7th grade. He says every boy in his school is bullying him (all but his one and only friend). Boys that he has known since kindergarten are extra cruel to him. There is one that in 5th grade pushed him down a flight of steps. This boy's mom is (I can't say what I want to say) and in her opinion it was all Alex's fault for being too close to her son. He is still tormenting him. There is another used to be friend that went all the way through Boy Scouts with Alex. This kid is calling Alex names, telling lies to other kids that Alex called them names, lying to the teachers also about Alex. I have talked to the teachers and they all know this boy is lying. There is so much crap going on with him at school and on the bus that he is shutting down at school completely. Oh, this same boy told the other kids that Alex got beat up at school and then on the bus and that is why he was not in school this past Friday. Alex was not in school because he had a major stress melt down at school and the minute he got home from school. there is a kid on the bus that throws things at Alex and gets the boys and girls that hang with him to do the same. I spoke to his class principal and she told me that just that day did all his teachers have a meeting about Alex and him shutting down in school and the problems. She suggested that I keep Alex home. Alex's special school district teacher, along with his core class teachers are going to try and get him a new schedule for his classes to get him away from as many of the kids that are tormenting him to see if that will help. He has not been sleeping at night, he has been wanting to stay very close to me, he only reads and plays DS or computer games and talks with what he says is his only best friend Nick. He does have other friends, they just aren't as available as Nick is.

Why don't I just take these parents out in the parking lot you wonder? I have talked to them in the past and it has never made any changes in their child's behavior. The principal has asked that I not confront them either, that she will take care of it. I have to trust her.

so, our daughter will be 15 on 10/28, driving permit age in the state of MO, and Alex's Doctor (yes I called him in complete abject parental fear), his Principal, his teachers, my friend who is the CEO of BHR and all of them suggest that we find him a psychologist or a psychiatrist. We have to do something, when he came home on Thursday he was ready to really hurt one or all of the half dozen or so boys that are tormenting him. He still did not sleep well on Thursday, but Friday and Saturday he did sleep better than he had been.

These problems with the kids makes every other difficulty (lack of money, house maintenance, bills, family that is sick, animal care, school, work, all of it) seem trivial.

So all you with little ones, hug them and keep loving them, they will really need you when they start interacting with others.