I had my son at home over the summer for 2 months, (he was term time pre school only). His behaviour was great and he generally seemed very independent and happy.
Anyway his first week of school half days went well. Now that he’s in his 2nd week of full days I can see all his old problems reemerging.
He now can’t seem to drink even a single sip of water all day whilst he’s there. He doesn’t eat his packed lunch - so obviously I’m thinking at this rate I should just switch him over to the crappy school lunches. And he’s started wetting and part soiling his pants multiple times a day either at home or school, also started bed wetting again this week after months of no issues. It’s like he literally cannot look after his own basic bodily functions in a school setting and now it’s feeding through to the home environment almost immediately. Is this how he’s just going to be until he’s older? He’s literally been on movicol for 2yrs anyway and I thought he’d turned a corner and matured in last couple of months, but now I realise it’s being away from his parents that’s the issue as we kept him on a fairly busy schedule in our presence over the summer, lots of play dates etc, we don’t helicopter parent or anything so we’re there but not necessarily having to always engage with him, we also weren’t forcing him to toilet or eat/drink over the summer, he was just independent. Likewise his sleeps also going to crap again.
We have a newborn arriving soon and I’m just shocked at how suddenly all these habits have come back on again and I am starting to worry about how I’m going to look after a very nearly 5 year who’s almost as unable as the baby to look after themselves. His behaviour at home is also clearly starting to deteriorate again with more tantrums.
Anyway it makes me question everything, like right now I’m sitting here thinking maybe it would be easier and less stressful to homeschool a 5year old with a newborn than have him in school. This is crazy I know but I don’t know how things have so instantly switched when just a couple of weeks ago life was so easy with him around all the time.
He seems perfectly happy going into school as he’s very familiar to it from pre school & no reports of behavioural issues unless you count the eating, drinking & toileting (but schools don’t generally care about those problems or have the time to help fix them).