Single Parenting Support Group

Today being raised by a single parent is not uncommon. About three in ten children live in a single parent home. The most common type of single parent home is one with only a mother. However, single father homes are the fastest growing type of family situation; 60% growth in the last ten years alone.

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Children's Health & Parenting
/ Single Parenting Support Group

How to calm the storm?

Ngirl
Ngirl
It has been a year since my divorce has been finalized. My son is 8 years old and starting to realize what is really going on with family as well as in real life. He struggles with bullying at school and comes home swearing. His dad won't help me take care of the problems at hand. He has lost good friends because of it. He can't focus on studies without me sitting and studying with him. But set him away from it all, he is really a good kid and wants to try. He sometimes wants to just break down and even cry. Every time I attempt to take him to counseling, his dad cuts me off and says he does not need to go.. You can see the confusion in his eyes of what to do or say or where to turn. He is an only child. Am I babying him too much or does he really need help? Your thoughts Please. Thank you
kidsintowe03
kidsintowe03
Do you need the X's permission to take him?? Is it somewhere in the custody arrangement that you both have to agree as to when and what dr he sees?? I am of the opinion that if you feel he needs counseling then take him!! Just because the X says he doesn't think he needs it doesn't mean he's right.
Thriver
Thriver
I agree. It's better to say you're sorry afterwards than ask permission and be told no. Maybe this is symptomatoc of another problem. For a long time I felt stuck because my X wouldn't agree to this or that, wouldn't help, wouldn't agree. Finally I realized that if I waited for him to come along and do what is right, I would be stuck forever and my kids would not have a leader able and powerful enough to look after them the way they need and deserve. Now my motto is, if I can do it legally, I will, and I don't care what he thinks or does or says.

If you are the one wih primary custody, you are the one who needs to be empowered to do what it takes to help yourr boy. If his dad was right, if he was all that, you'd still be married.
Thriver
Thriver
Ps obviously he needs help, and he is confused because you are. Follow your instincts, they are correct. If you are legally constrained about the therapy, take him to a support group such as Rainbow Kids, I think it is called.