Is He Too Stressed?

It was a Friday and school starts at 7.15am every Friday.

At dismissal time, he was led out by the Chinese teacher, because the last hour was Mother Tongue. The teacher told me that he refused to hand in his Spelling for checking of parent's signature. He just shouted and threw a tantrum.

When I tried to ask him what the problem was , again he kicked a big fuss outside the school. I found the Spelling worksheet in his bag, but when I wanted to hand it to the teacher, she had already left... there he went again.. screaming and shouting !

Half way back home, I asked him why was it so difficult just to take a piece of paper out and hand it in... he started having a meltdown.... he started screaming and hitting me.. till my glasses almost fell and twisted. I was fuming in rage! Everyone was staring at us. I had to stop his tantrum , made him say sorry , calm him (and myself) down before continuing our way home. We were "stuck " there for almost half an hour!

That day , I found out that he also refused to hand in some worksheets to his English Form teacher. But because he knew that Son would have the tendency of throwing a tantrum, he did not insist , and so the meltdown was avoided.

I was really boiling mad at the moment when he hit me.. I was just asking him "nicely" and "patiently" what happened and there he was.. hitting his Mum right in front of so many other people.

But when I sat down at night and thought back calmly , have I been at that moment "interrogating" him too much? He already had a tiring day, waking up at 6.30am, having to sit down and concentrate throughout the 6 hours. He was already trying very hard... after all he does have his "blue" days on and off , due to his asd.

Perhaps it is a lesson to be learnt for me. I should have sensed that he was already very stressed , especially sitting through Mother Tongue class for the last hour. Questioning further after school was simply too much for him to take. He was just like an overblown balloon , stressing him further made him burst instantaneously. I should have been more sensitive to his emotion and need.

Son... Mum knows you are already doing very well, much better than I have expected.

Please keep it up and I will always be there for you, supporting you , loving you.