Bad Bear

Bear got into trouble at school for talking during assembly and was made to stand up in front of the whole class.  Bear said that he hadn't been talking, and I believe him because if he had been talking he would have told me that he was only saying and it was definitely because someone else caused a problem.  Bear is big on justifying himself. and I'm not deterring him at the moment as it gives me a fighting chance of finding out what's going on.  So bear had to stand in front of the whole assembly and didn't give a flying fig leaf.  He did not care.  Not only did he not care but he got a lot of playground cred from the bad boys for not caring.  This is new to bear who is normally impeccably behaved according to the teachers.

This is not good.  I have tried to instil a good pattern of behaviour in bear, but I learned long ago never to threaten bear with something because he would shrug it off.  You could threaten to cut his sweets - fine, he'll do without sweets.  You could tell him that he would miss out on a treat.  Go ahead then, he'd miss the treat. I remember being on my knees when bear was about two.  He wouldn't take his antibiotics for love nor money.  I literally had his antibiotics in one hand and the white chocolate buttons in the other and he would not be bribed.  I was there for hours.  He got better but it wasn't anything to do with regular doses of antibiotics.  What can I say.  I was just as bad as a youngster.  Refusing to apologise for something I hadn't done and complete resistance to bow to the leader's will got me kicked out of playgroup at around age four.  Looking back at some of the tussles I had with teachers over the years makes me feel almost queasy when I think of bear using the same tactics.

I was clear to bear that as I believed that he hadn't been talking so I wasn't doing anything.  I take the line that what happens in school stays in school, especially when it comes to punishments.  I was clear that I would be unhappy if bad stuff started happening at High School, and bear shrugged. 

Bear was not impressed with his teacher before this.  Now I think she has lost a lot of ability to exert discipline over him.  Bear is a good lad, on the whole, and by and large, as seen from the perspective of a doting mother.  He's never been in trouble.  It's just I have an awful feeling that bear has taken this as a 'challenge accepted' moment.  There are around 110 days left of actual time-in-a-classroom left before he leaves primary school.  I'm keeping it all crossed that we all get through it okay, including the teacher.