Two years ago, my oldest was eleven and in the fifth grade. She is my social butterfly. She had many friends and did well in school. Fifth grade was going great. Then, the kids had winter break. My daughter returned to school, but things had changed. Suddenly, she was at odds with all of the other little girls that she once called friends. It was an on again off again roller coaster through to the end of the school year.
As a parent, I was at a loss. I did not understand what had changed and, as much as I tried to give guidance to my child, nothing I could say seemed to make things better. I mentioned the issues to my daughter’s teacher during a parent teacher conference. I had to know if it was all my child or if there really was an issue that needed to be dealt with. The teacher explained that it was a common occurrence with the age group and it was worst between winter and spring break when the kids are cooped up with one another unable to get out and play due to the cold weather.
Eventually, things did get better. Thank goodness for summer vacation and going to different middle schools. I had almost forgotten about my daughter’s dramatic second semester of fifth grade until this week.
Apparently history does repeat itself. I had hoped that my children being vastly different would save me from the drama; this is my younger daughter, Jeanette’s, fifth grade year. Jeanette is not like her sister. She is soft spoken and has a tight knit small group of friends. She wears her heart on her sleeve and takes everything personally. Three days after returning to school from winter break, she was in tears.
The last couple of weeks have been interesting, to say the least. At school, apparently things have gotten bad enough in class that the principal has had to get involved. They made up for the sake of staying out of trouble, but are still being catty to one another. I have tried to stay back and let things work themselves out.
At home, Jeanette is driving me insane. She is just a miserable soul. She doesn’t want to do her homework or practice her music. Her room is a mess. Anything that I say to her makes her end up in tears. It is driving me insane. I am hoping some one on one time this weekend will make a difference.
We have four more months until summer vacation; it cannot come soon enough. I am officially more excited that my kids.
ornerydame 