Don't be fooled by that mischievious glint in his eyes. Beneath that cheeky looking face lies a sensitive little heart.
K has a nick coined by dh; B.L.X, which is the acronym for 波離心 in han yu pin yin. Whenever he is disciplined for his mis-behaviour, he cries like it is the end of the world and it seems like we are such cruel parents. I always felt that he used his tears as a weapon to inflict guilt and make us go a bit easy on the discipline.
Since he has only joined his pre-school for about a month, I did not have to participate in the parents-teacher meeting and got a call from his teacher instead. Our conversation went like this :
Mrs Phua :
Mrs Ng, Kyle has adjusted very well to school.
He is a very sociable boy, extremely helpful as well, always offers to help the teachers in class.
(I was grinning from ear to ear when I heard this, but braced myself for what will come next. Preschool teachers are trained to manage the parents by first, sharing the good points of the child and then dishing out the not so nice things).
Mrs Phua :
You know being sociable, he tends to like to talk to his friends, likes to sits close to his friends and sometimes disturbs them (I expected this, since our Sunday School experience). But you know, some children don't like that (hmm…okay, he is a tad bit irritating). He tends to snatch toys when he wants to play with it, and the girl will be screaming at the top of her lungs (not a gentleman yet, I guess, besides boys are a minority in his class). So we will put him in the quiet corner for a few minutes However he does cry very easily when we do that, and he will always cry and say, "I will not do that again." Also he is quite active and tends to get very excited, so we will put him in the quiet corner to calm him down before starting the activity (already a frequent visitor of the quiet corner in just under a month?).
Me :
So after being at the quiet corner so often, is his behaviour improving?
Mrs Phua :
Uh uh…yes a little bit (this means that there hasn't been much change of behaviour). Don't worry we will continue to guide him and one more thing, he is also a very vocal child.
Me :
You know since he is an only child, he gets very little social exposure except those times when he is in school. I will really need your help to guide him in his social skills.
When I shared this with dh, his comments were "Mister BLX strikes again!" and when I shared this with Nana, she laughed out loud. I don't know where was the hilarity in it, maybe grand-parents really do see things quite differently. I have to see the positiveness of the feedback and remind myself that I have a real sensitive child despite his obstinate and strong-willed personality. As for his lack of social skills, I am not majorly concerned over it, as I think it will improve over time as he learns and develops empathy, as well as given more opportunities for interaction, guidance and role-playing at home.
