School woes

I debated on whether or not to add some of the more personal things to this blog and I decided that since this is for you guys (the kiddos) that I want you to remember the good and the not so good. I long ago stopped keeping up on everyone's scrapbook so this is kinda where you story of childhood is told.

Caleb you have had some hard challenges to overcome this year. Starting a new school where you didn't know anyone and having to make friends all over again is stressful! You seemed to handle this really well, but you really started to struggle after Christmas break. Your math teacher mentioned that things were only going to get harder the second half of the year and while I don't think he said this as a threatening statement, that is how you took it. After Christmas break when you went back to school you weren't the easy going Caleb that we knew. You wanted/needed to please everyone so much that you put really hard and sometimes unobtainable expectations on yourself. You no longer just got your homework done to get it done. You would spend your entire night studying for tests that were sometimes weeks away. The night before a test you would cry yourself to sleep and beg not to go to school the next day. No amount of mom or dad telling you to stop worrying helped. We felt terrible that you were so stressed all the time and yet it sometimes probably came across as annoyed when you wanted us to review flash cards over and over again. For whatever reason I made you feel slightly better but that meant that you followed me everywhere I went. I got so bad that it started to keep you from the things that you liked to do such as playing with your brother, pool games and riding your 4 wheeler. At this point we started having you see James a counselor that Bryce has seen in the past. Bryce always seemed to like him so we thought we would give it a try. You started talking to him once a week and you would work on how to convince yourself that you were ready for the test. At times it seemed to work and many times we sent you to school crying and hoping for the best. Towards the end of school we were at the end of our rope as far as knowing how to help you cope with these feelings of anxiety. As a parent it is hard to see your kiddo go through something that you are pretty sure you passed down to them and the only thing dad and I knew was for some reason as an adult we had learned to cope with our feelings of anxiety. We took you to see your trusty pediatrician and it was decided that we would start some meds to help with the anxiety so that you didn't have to go through another year of school feeling like this. I hope that reading this when you are older you agree with our decision and know that we didn't come about it lightly. In July we started you on Lexapro and worked up the dosage until it seemed to be making a difference to you. We are hoping that this will help you relax and enjoy your years in intermediate school.