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How to deal with damage when other kids tell yours they are ugly and they lose self esteem?

130 replies

Persimum · 26/07/2010 14:32

Any mums out there who have to keep trying to make their kids feel better when they lose confidence at school cos others tell them they dont fit in cos they dont look good enough?

Why do some kids cope and others dont?
How do mums cope? Any tried and tested ideas please that work. im finding this a big worry for me and for offspring. School itself is no help and nothing they can do anyway I know it has to come from the child but child doesn't believe anyone but the ones who say they look rubbish. Breaks your heart to watch it, let alone totally frustrating.

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ABitTipsy · 13/09/2010 16:24

Persimum, just quickly popping on to say, of course, you are right re the inheritance tax issues of gifts to children. I had been totally focussing on capital gains tax which he had mentioned in one letter but totally forgot about inheritance tax. So glad I asked your advice, I think I am too emotionally involved in all this to see things clearly. Ok, have to go now, but will be back later. Hope things are ok at your end with DS2. x

Persimum · 13/09/2010 18:10

Just keep some distance emotionally, see him as someone you are dealing with over a business deal, so you are polite (which costs nothing but will put him on the back foot) and keep very calm. Focus in your mind purely on the money and the good it will do for DD and in the long run probably for DS too. Your dad will be maybe expecting you to react emotionally and start throwing words and blame at him, so surprise him. Play this like a chess game, surprise move after surprise move. Accept that, certainly for a long time probably, he's not going to understand the issues you've been dealing with, well, not from your standpoint anyway, so don't waste your precious time and feelings on longing for what ain't going to be in terms of getting some kind of retribution or apology, go for what is practically possible. No harm in talking about 'who knows what may happen in the future' with him like an extra long carrot, you are promising nothing and you are being very pleasant and reasonable and grateful for his kindness. It may just be that in his heart, he knows what a rotten human being he's been, and even if making this gift makes him feel better, let it, cos really the only person who needs to know the truth about your feelings and your life is you, and you do know and don't need to prove it to anyone. You are getting on with your life and you are making sure no one is going to impede that. And if he gets stupid about the money and then starts imposing impossible conditions, then just say 'well, dad, i'm sorry you feel that all this extra stuff is necessary, i understood from the others that this was just a generous arrangement you were making for your children and i appreciated that. but as things are right now, i feel comfortable with thanking you and accepting it on the terms i understood it was offered, but if these are different and i've misunderstood, then DH and i will have to talk this over and get back to you sometime. End of conversation.

It may only be capital gains tax he's worried about, but its worth being genned up on every aspect of what this gift means, just so he can't blind you with science and he can see you are a force to be reckoned with. :) x

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ABitTipsy · 13/09/2010 19:38

Persimum, just wanted to say thank you soooo much for your post. I am exhausted so going to get an early night but will be back soon (hopefully tomorrow morning) to post more. You have given me a brilliant perspecitve on all of this and I will think hard about what you have said. Thanks again, speak soon, ABT x

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Persimum · 14/09/2010 10:23

ABT that's really kind of you, glad it helps, even if only a little. i am probably the last person really to give advice, but i just tried to stand in your shoes and describe what i would do in your place. Mind you in years gone by i would have asked DH to do it, and then i would have stood beside him listening to his every word and he would have not done it the way i thought he should and he wouldn't have parried the rubbish the way i felt it needed doing. I would have been busily pencilling words on a piece of paper with suggestions to put in front of him of how to deal with the answers he was getting, and he would not have been able to cope with reading it and listening at the same time and the whole thing would have become bizarre (and quite unintentionally funny, looking back on it!)

in the end i would have felt even more frustrated with the whole situation and DH would have felt unhappy cos he'd not helped me, or so he thought, so he'd get mad with me afterwards in the inevitable debriefing and then say, 'well, next time YOU do it' and then we would be at loggerheads for an hour or two and all cos of my dad, which of course would be just what my dad wanted all along!

So i reckon, use all your excellent research on Miller, turn yourself into a calm counsellor and just see your dad as an elderly guy who is probably not a very happy person (how could he be having treated you as he did) and who is trying to find his way through life like we all are. You are in control of your life now and you ARE a happy person cos you've discovered enlightenment and what it means. Imagine DD trotting off to her lovely school, but if he gets silly about stuff, end it, as suggested in last post, and know that she will be happy at whatever school, cos she's got you and DH and love, and that's all that counts.

DS2 went to the best private school in town, and he had love at home, apart from DS1 who gave him hell part of the time and was lovely part of the time, very hard to deal with when people change a lot, you never know if you can trust them but you so want to be their pal when they are nice. they both got a good education but they didn't enjoy the school at all and scraping the money up in later years to keep him and DS1 there maybe curtailed other things we would like to have done with them (going away for more holidays for instance). I think both DSs felt this financial difference, as they made the inevitable comparisons with their peers whose dads drove supposedly better cars and wined and dined the Head etc (not that we'd have wanted to do that even if we'd been millionaires! :) ) So just be sure if you start down the private education route, you can comfortably carry on without dad's support if you have to.Hmm
(Don't mean to sound bossy :) ) P x

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Persimum · 14/09/2010 14:48

Hi, me again. I'm really sorry about this, especially right now when you are in the thick of it, but her GP let me know just that MIL has had a bad fall and i'm going to have to fly down there and sort things out for her with the house etc and make sure she has the necessary care. its happened at lunchtime and i must go as there's no one else there for her and DH is at work. But you'll do fine, you will know in your heart what to do vis-a-vis dad and the money, and i'll get back when i can but may be away for a bit of a while. I suggest we let this thread go now and start your new one under 'Health' and i'll find you there when i come back. I can't track stuff when away as i don't have a laptop and anyway she has no computer access there, out in the wilds.

I'll be routing for you, take care, and remember what a strong lady you are, and it will all be just fine. See you soon on the new thread. :) P xx

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