Nov 20 2008
More in common than we thought
I recently participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. For those of you not familiar with the Relay, you join a team to raise money for cancer research and participate in an overnight relay. Our local Relay was held at the high school outdoor track. Each hour for 12 hours, at least one person from my mom's club's team walked the track. If we weren't walking, we sat around talking and eating when we weren't trying to catch some sleep in our tent.
There's nothing like hanging out all night with other people to get to know them better. I invited a couple of moms I knew from Nathan's school to join our team. One of them serves on the charter school board with me. While we knew we had a lot in common, from marketing and writing backgrounds to a love of punk and new wave, it was great to finally sit and chat with no little people or grumpy board members interrupting us. We talked about everything from religion to our families, and hope this is the beginning of a closer friendship if we can find the time to get our families together. (She has an even crazier schedule than I have.)
As the entire team walked the last lap at 6 a.m., she told me of the couple of times her son, who's a year older than Nathan, had to do a "refocus" at school. Like Nathan, her son was having a tough time adjusting to school. Then she told me about a friend of hers who is having a tough time with her six-year-old son's rotten, teenage-like behavior. I could really relate.
I looked back at the struggle I had with Nathan's problems almost a year ago. At the time I wondered what I had done wrong to cause a sweet little boy to become so defiant and stubborn. Talking with my new friend, I realized how normal Nathan was after all. It seems that many of the boys we knew in that age group -- all of them smart, shy and sweet -- were struggling with behavioral issues and strong emotions at school. Funny how we had all kept our little secret to ourselves and that it took a sleep deprivation to chat about it.
We moms definitely need to talk more.
