Another Mystery is Solved

Last week, for only the second time in history, I received a poor report about my son's behavior in class. Given that his teacher has been writing weekly reports for him since May of 2010, that's not a completely horrific statistic. Still, we had been hoping that his first negative report would be his last.

The first time his teacher wrote about Pig Jr.'s misbehavior, it was because he bit another child. Granted, the other child took something from him and Pig Jr. was almost completely nonverbal in a school setting. He reacted the way a typical not-talking three-year-old would, and he put his mouth on the other child. Thankfully, that was all he did. He did not bite down, apply pressure of any form, and the teacher said the only visible mark was a tiny wet spot on the other child's pant leg where my son had attempted to bite. Pig Jr. had consequences both at school and at home for that one, and we thought his nonverbal days of physical retaliation were long gone.

Sadly, last week's report stated that Pig Jr. had pushed another student. His teacher had attempted to find out why he pushed that little girl, but my son was either unable or unwilling to give a response. He earned a time-out for his behavior, and his teacher asked me if I could try and figure out what had prompted such an action from my normally well-behaved kidlet. I tried asking him, but he just shut down and refused to talk. I figured that we would never find out what the trigger was unless history repeated itself, and I seriously hoped that would never happen.

Normally, I walk the kidlets to and from school every day. Today, I failed to time my errands properly and wound up having to drive to school to pick them up after my stop at the local drugstore took longer than expected. Naturally, today had to be the one day where a major car accident occurred in the blocks between school and home, and we were stuck waiting in traffic while cars were being routed elsewhere. During this unusually long trek home, I heard a small voice pipe up from one of the seats behind me.

     Pig Jr.: "I like all my friends at school, but not Madison."
     Me: "Oh? Why don't you like Madison?"
     Pig Jr.: "She teases me a lot."
     Me: "What does she say to tease you?"
     Pig Jr.: "She says she likes me!"

Wow, really? Pig Jr. went on to repeat a number of times, in increasing volume and intensity, that Madison "teases" him and "picks on" him strictly by saying she likes him. My son sounded completely frustrated and borderline hysterical because of a comment which I would interpret as positive on her part.

I suppose he would not have been amused had she told him she didn't like him, too. He has complained when one of his sisters claims to not like him, so I am assuming he would not care for such a comment from a girl in his class either. Poor Madison just cannot win in this situation.

Tomorrow morning, I will have to tell my son's teacher the reason for his animosity towards his classmate. I do not know whether Madison is following Pig Jr. around and making a royal pest of herself or if Pig Jr. was simply that offended by one single, solitary comment. Hopefully, his teacher will have a solution to the problem of freaking out because someone says she likes him, because I'm certainly baffled over this one.