Starting Young

So I'm not up for father of the year.

My wife took my son to the doctor today. A specialist.

My boy is a boy. And how. He is crazy. He is wild. He is out of control. He is 7.

A boy.

But he might also be a bit nuts. Heck - it certainly runs in the family.

Both sides.

So who is to say?

We had the meeting with his first grade teacher this year. The - "well... what do I say about your boy?" meeting. The "he could go either way" meeting. The "I don't want you to find this out later and then say no one told you this before" meeting.

So what does that mean?

I know we can over medicate in our society. Heck - we're at a point where we're giving drugs to dogs to calm them down. But there are also great advances in medicine that help people.

My wife has many issues - one being depression. When she is on medication - it is way better than when she is off. This is something that is a wonder of modern medicine and when people tell me that it is nonsense - its just cause they don't know.

I don't think medicine is for everyone. But it is for some. And it does help.

My mom tried for years to get me to take medicine for ADD or ADHD or whatever. I chose not to. Not because I didn't need it. Probably because she was insisting. Who knows. Would it help me get more done? Maybe? I don't know. But I function.

It's tougher for my son.

In the old days - we would just say he's a boy - give him a stick and tell him to go play. Come back at dinner. Can't do that now. So you go to a doctor.

The Doc sounds like a wise guy. He also sees that the kid is a boy. And this is what boy's do.

But he sees something deeper too.

He's afraid my kid is a bit victimized by his sister.

Wow.

Doesn't that just go with the turf?

I know I victimized my sister. And I had good parents. Parents who payed attention. And I still drove her crazy. Mostly for no reason. To the point of her blowing her top at me. Constantly. In front of my friends. In front of my enemies. In front of whoever.

Till she got old enough that my friends wanted to date her and told me what an ass I was.

It's tough on my kid.

He's the only boy. All of our family has girls. All the people nearby have girls. The only boys he gets to play with are younger than him. When he joins his sister and her friends - they really get mean with him. So he goes all HULK SMASH on them.

He's trying. And he's a kid. And he's 7.

And his dad is never home. So I know where the stones should be thrown. Send them all to China.

I talked to him about going to the doctor today. What he thought. How he felt. He is upset cause he is gonna start taking a very low does of Wellbutrin. And he has to swallow it. And he didn't like people saying bad stuff about him.

I told him I love him. And I'm proud of him. And that he is slowly becoming a man - and that even all the way from China I know he has a good heart and is trying to do the right thing.

Is this the right thing to give him medicine? I don't know. I really don't. But we can try it. It's not behavior altering. Its supposed to be focus enhancing. So we shall see.

I don't want to break his heart or his spirit.
Being away from this right now is breaking mine.