Back to it..

Alden* has a lot going on. I am not here to tell children's secrets, so I can't really tell you too much about him, but he has overcome a lot of obstacles in his existence, and he's done well. Everyone who has known him awhile is pretty proud of him, actually. I know I am. :)

Sometimes (most of the time) he does really well, but today he slugged someone on the upper arm, told someone else to 'shut your stupid mouth', crashed into someone else while waiting in line to wash hands, did assorted little nit-picky things to make the other kids angry.. it was very frustrating. He went around aggravating people as much as he could. He seemed to really enjoy it, sadly.

I did talk with him several times.
He told me that his "hand just reached out and smacked Bryan.*"

Um, no.

"Buddy, who controls your hands?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. You. And you're not doing that."

We talked often this afternoon. It did no good that I was aware of. I talked with his dad when he came to pick him up. I told him that Alden had listened to me, but it seemed like he just wasn't responding to the regular tricks.

He told me that I wasn't the only person who'd talked to him today and that they'd be talking to Alden at home again tonight.

He really *is* a good kid. And wants to do the right thing. But he's impulsive and physical and his issues magnify those things.

I'm really, really hoping that Wednesday is better.

I don't want him to feel bad about what he's done, I don't think that's productive. I'm not sure if that makes sense, the way I said it. It's just that guilt isn't a very productive state of mind. It is temporarily helpful, but it's not my goal to control the kids, it's my goal to convince them that it's a good idea to control themselves.

But I'm tired and this post won't even be proofread before I set it to post at one minute past midnight, shut down the computer and go to sleep.

Which is happening right now. Hope your day is a good one. :)