Sigh...

Well, Friday afternoon 6:30pm and Allison is asleep. We think we've never seen her so exhausted before. Today was a difficult day for her. I think we knew it from the moment she woke up. Her teacher stopped me when I picked her up asking for suggestions - saying that she was very attentive during story time, but was having difficulty during free play and recess times.

I think I was prepared for a little backslide with a new environment, new expectations, new schedule, etc. Hopefully it will be short lived. If not... I don't know. She does get 2 hours of aide time each week, and we've met the aide who is very nice. I hope that will be enough.

What is so frustrating about this whole thing is that it seems that we've talked to a lot of different people and found out that she does 'not' have a lot of different problems. However, no one can say "well, I saw this boy a few years ago with the same issues and here is what worked." Instead, people keep turning back to us saying "well, what should we do?" as if we're keeping some magical behavioral secret to ourselves.

While I would *never* ever wish any medical issues on my children - at least illnesses come with numbers to gauge "sickness" or "wellness." You can take temperatures or blood counts and know whether it is getting worse or better. Behavior seems like this gypsy crystal ball of "well, you can try this for the next 6 months and hopefully you'll see more improvement that you would have if you hadn't done that for 6 months."

Additionally, there is this general sense that all behavior problems are rooted in parental dos and don'ts. A blerb in the parents newletter came home with Jacob (it went to all parents at the daycare) about discipline and it said something like "if you hit, they will hit. If you yell, they will yell." Is there no room for kids to come up with some things on their own? It's not like Allison watches us draw on the walls with sharpies and then mimics it.

Sigh....