No sex, no rock n roll

[Tommy Martyn]

Had a teacher parent meeting yesterday. Henry, my son, (age 5) is a handful. Most days he thinks and acts like a dinosaur. He is disrupting his class. We did the meeting and agreed on using the same punishment and reward strategies, for the same offences, at home and at school. I couldn't agree more. Henry needs structure. We are to sit down again in November. It was made clear to me that if there was no change in Henry by then (about 6 weeks or so) then the school would recommend that we would see a peadiatrician. This is shorthand for putting my son on drugs. Something along the lines of Ritalin. Fuck me. How did it get to this? Drugging up five year olds for behaving like, well, five year olds. I should point out that he isn't hitting or beating up kids or threatening or bullying. He has a hard time sitting still and paying attention.

I don't have the right to administer personality changing drugs on infants that are no danger to anybody. Is it me? Or has the world gone fucking mad? God knows what they would have done to me at the same age. I'm still disruptive and unable to sit still (without a few beers) at age 41.

I kept repeating that drugs were not an option. She kept repeating the phrase, "we want to give Henry the opportunities to be a success." It was like the american dream run amok. You could have made a twilight zone show back in the fifties about drugging babies to make them "successful."

[Tommy Martyn]

I haven't been this angry in ages. A bloke beeped at me today to hurry up and make a left turn. I was letting someone out. We both pulled into the same parking lot for an open air shopping mall. As luck would have it we were headed for the same restaurant. Now, it is a long standing pet hate of mine that folk who zoom in cars and whiz about parking spaces, invariably, walk like fucking fat fucking zombies the minute they get out of their cars. Proving that ,when they have to actually spend energy to get their lazy fat arses to the trough, they aren't really in that much of a hurry. Such as it was with this clown today. It was all I could do not to stab him.

[Sloth]

Don't put your son on drugs. No matter what they tell you. Please. Drugs are a personal choice he can make at 16.

Seriously though. People in OHIO of all places have a bad track record in the serious decisions department.

[martino]

from my experience, kids that can't sit still need sports sports sports. and plenty of sleep. and good healthy food. that usually does the trick. does your school provide this?

from what i have read, ritalin is a serious drug, not to be given lightly. if your school continues to coerce you to use ritalin perhaps you should warn them that you intend to sue their arse in case, one day, ritalin turns out to be not as safe as they say.

schools and bad drivers: two of my pet peeves as well. how is it in the US: are BMW drivers arguably the worse? sure is that way over here

[martino]

i know the rudolf steiner nonsense sounds creepy but you should consider a walldorf school for henry.

[mccutcheon]

The Midwest maybe isn't the best.

[Sloth]

You have to love America. They put adults in jail for taking speed and then suggest giving it to 5 year olds.

[Maverick]

I'm sure most of us that post here would have been put on Ritalin when we were kids if they had it. And we all turned out fine without it...

Seriously, Martino is right. Kids need activity, not drugs. They also need intellectual stimualtion, or they get bored and act like dinosaurs instead of listening to the stuff they already know. I'm sure you know all this already, but maybe it helps to hear than not everyone thinks your son needs to be medicated.

[TragicPixie]

Good for you that you don't want to drug your kid! Having grown up in the drugged generation I have to say I wonder how "safe" it actually is looking at my friends who were on it. Eitherway fostering a chemcial dependency at such a young age doesn't sound like a way to go.

How active *is* your son though? What worked best with my little brother was a lot of sports and other physical things he really enjoyed.

[mccutcheon]

You should see the movie Thumbsucker. It should have been called The Thumbsucker Blues.

[bfj]

Aye, Ritalin will spin your kid out. Its speed we are talking about. Not healthy for any age. A couple years on that shit and he'll think dinosaurs are out to get him as opposed to him being the dinosaur.

[mccutcheon]

Ritalin is only three molecules removed from cocaine. I learned that in debate class. And I know how you feel about cocaine. It's the opposite Sloth feels about cocaine