A little tip for parents with children in school (or for children in school to show their parents)
My mom gave me and my sister two days every semester that she called “mental health days.”
Those were days, that for ANY reason, and without having to tell my mom the reason, we could skip the day of school. We’d just tell her we were taking a mental health day and she’d call the school and let them know we were not coming in.
#1 This helped keep our grades up by lowering our stress levels. I never got a C in any grade school class. The majority of my classes I received A’s. I also took 4 AP classes and they were not weighted. Trust me, it made a difference.
#2 I never felt the need to skip school. I knew if I ever wanted to or needed to my mom would help me.
Your kids are young and need time to recover. They need some days where they can do nothing but stay in bed for no reason. They need their own space where their privacy is respected. It will make a huge difference.
Will do this when I have kids
I would like to add something to this for the teachers too! (I may have already told this story on tumblr but OH WELL I’m telling it again)
One of my math teachers in high school had a policy called The Red Beanbags of Don’t Bother Me. He kept a pile of red beanbags on his desk, and at any time of the day you could go over and take one. From that point on, as long as you were in his classroom with a beanbag on your desk, no one could bother you. He wouldn’t call on you to answer problems, no students were allowed to talk to you, and perhaps most importantly, no one could ask why you took a bean bag that day. The only caveat was that if you used the beanbag more than three times in a semester you had to go talk to the school counselor about it.
I only used the beanbag a handful of times during those 4 years, but it was a godsend when I needed it. I knew people who would camp in his classroom during lunch (or even skip class and stay there all day) under the protection of the beanbag. As a teacher there’s not always a lot you can do for a student suffering mental illness/emotional abuse/ other struggles, but giving them some space and privacy in your class can make a HUGE difference.
Can we just talk about this part of the article??? “Clifford says he suffers from issues of ‘self esteem, loneliness, a bit of depression’ and has been taking too many sleeping pills at night” This part worries the fuck out of me???? This is basically saying Michael abuses sleeping pills??? I just hope that he’s okay and that he doesn’t hurt himself. I’ve dealt with my family members abusing pills, and that’s actually how my mother passed away. I dont know if i’m taking this out of context or if i’m making this more than it was supposed to be, but i just care about Michael so much and I don’t want him to get hurt.