A G update
It’s been three months now since I initially wrote about our parenting challenges with G. I’m really happy to say that sitting here today, as I write this, I feel that our world is very different. We see sweet, loving, funny, awesome G far more than angry and violent G. And when he does have outbursts, knock on wood, they are shorter, milder, and far and few between.
I can’t tell you exactly WHAT did it. I feel like we’ve scrummed on this problem, and it’s made a difference. Our daycare has been exceptionally supportive, between the teachers and directors and that has been really good for my sanity and stress levels. Otherwise, here are some factors that have also come into play:
Time. I think this extends itself two-fold. For starters he’s matured a little bit. Second, he’s had more time to acclimate to the transition of the pre-K room.
Consistency. I think through the counseling S and I have gone through, we’ve become a lot more consistent in how we handle situations
Counseling. G’s been seeing a play therapist for a few months now. Jury’s out on that, to be honest. I don’t know how much it’s helped because in the debrief session we had with her following, she was asking US more about what was going on, than providing any insights into their time together. G loves seeing her though, so I’m torn on whether to keep going.
At the same time, S and I have been seeing a Parenting Coach, and she’s been awesome. We started down the path of looking at a multi-week Triple P program, only to find that one of the facilities that hosts the seminars, also offers 1:1 coaching. We decided to try it and it’s been great. It hasn’t been cheap, and sadly not covered by insurance, but it’s been a very valuable resource for us, and within the first hour we got more out of that conversation than the books we’d read and online courses we did. The changes we’ve made have been really small, and fairly simple, but surprisingly effective. We were encouraged to start doing daily reward charts, and man, it’s made a HUGE impact. He likes the stars, and the daily rewards for following on our rules. I see this being something we’ll keep in our parenting arsenal for behaviors we need to adjust for a long time to come. Maybe not with stars, though ;p
Again, I feel so much better. We haven’t had a test of taking him to another doctor’s appointment, and our photo session didn’t go awesomely from his participation, but still, the day to day life is so much improved.
Go G!
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