Sasha1972

Today I was supposed to pick up Kid from school for a dentist appointment. Her school was having an end of year dance in the afternoon. I was supposed to pick up Kid from the dance at 4, but she called me at 3 to ask if I could get her early. She said the dance was really loud and crowded and she did not feel good being around kids who were being equally loud and boisterous (it's junior high, so peak loud and obnoxious years).

This is significant because Kid is very guarded about her emotions. She takes pride in never being "phased" by anything, she does not want to talk about how she is feeling, and she does not want me poking around her emotional life. Everything is always "fine, fine". She is, in short, very much like the "little adult" child of an alcoholic. So while for another kid, calling Mom to pick her up early because she didn't feel good about where she was might not be unusual, for my Kid, it was unusual.

I'd told her that if she ever felt uncomfortable in a situation, she could call me and I would come and get her, no questions asked. And I am really happy that she a) recognized that she was anxious and not enjoying things; b) asked for help; c) acknowledged that she was anxious and wanted help instead of making up a story for why she needed to be picked up early.

(Kid is also tall for her age and really gorgeous [according to me], and I think one of the subtexts here is that she was uncomfortable with the attention she was getting from boys).

wehav2day

Go Kid!

FeelingGreat

There you go, whatever you're doing, keep it up.