My sister has been missing a lot of school lately. And by a lot, well, it seems like it's gotten to at least a couple days a week. Even when she does go to school, she goes in an hour or two late. And she gets picked up early a lot. If she were a rebellious teenager, this wouldn't be too out of the ordinary. The problem is that she's 8 years old. *waits for gasp* My mom...doesn't care, needless to say. I've held my tongue up until today, cringing each morning when I step out of the shower and see my sister still in her sleep clothes, sleeping on the couch, when it's time to leave. As my mom and I left the house this morning, she reassured me that she would take her in late. But what do you know...I enter my mom's car as I'm being picked up and guess what the back seat is missing? My sister, which means she stayed home...again. I asked my mom about it and she said that she fell asleep, forgetting to take her. Typical. I finally expressed my concern about how much school she's missed and the fact that my sister isn't the one that's going to get in trouble - my mom is. It doesn't help that DHS is already supervising us because of some things related to me. It's just going to get worse once they realize how much school my sister has missed. I told my mom how frightening this is to me, because it could affect me, long term. What if we're taken away from her? Where does that leave me? Moving in with my dad out of state? No thank you. I absolutely could not do that. She basically just nodded and said that she 'knows'. She keeps saying she's gonna call the doctor and get notes for the absences, but she continues to 'forget'. The thing is, at this point, even with notes, they don't care about documentation. It's still like 10 absences or so, excused or not. The reason my sister misses school is because she absolutely hates it, which is sad considering how young she is. She's overweight, so one can assume the kids tease her about that, not that they wouldn't anyway. Her teacher is a complete bitch. I'm actually friends with her granddaughter, and even she agreed. And there's probably more to it, but that's scratching the surface. I don't know what to do. There's not really anything I can do. But I can't be taken away from my mom. That would kill me. So...any advice at all is welcome. Thanks for reading.
Not much you CAN do, sadly. What's your relationship like with your sister? Maybe you can talk to her about why she's missing so much school? Lex
We used to be quite close, but we've drifted so much. I try to hold causal conversation with her and she replies angrily to everything I say. She doesn't seem to like me very much. One thing I forgot to mention is that when she's not at school, which is pretty much all the time now, and when she's not sleeping, she's on the computer. That consumes every second of her life other than the two things aforementioned. She plays these games with all of her little online buddies for hours and hours, taking brief bathroom breaks, but that's it.
I can't tell you what to do (boy I say that a lot), but I think you need to focus on you and what it's going to take to keep your sanity through all of this. One of the hardest things that I learned was that no matter how hard I tried, my parents weren't going to change until they wanted to. No one changes until they want to. Hell, Despite all of my dads screaming, I didn't. Get with your school counselor or someone you trust and get this shit out of you. I am a massive supporter of support groups and this sound like a good thing to take to one. When I tried to get through stuff like that on my own, I just started getting depressed and self destructive. Starving myself, smoking cigarettes, drinking, and other things were just a few of the ways I harmed myself. This stuff affects us more than we know and it's important to find people who have been through it and have come out the other side to live honestly and happily. Seriously, make some calls find some groups/free counseling. and try to keep that stuff in-person. Good luck.
^ Agreed. Go see a doctor that knows child psychology. I have a feeling shes stressed about home life or maybe things going around in the home. Is she bullied a lot at school? How about her friends? But dude, counciller if you can. Another ADULT would be best.
My little brother was kind of like this, but not as bad. What my mom did get him to go to school was...well, bascially bribery. I forgot how much, but she would give him a certain amount of money for every "good day" of school he had. It was the same with grades, my step-dad would give him $5 or $10 (I forget which) for every A he got.
i hope its your mom picking her up early. and 8 years old. she really needs to be in class we learn alot at that age. i also think anyone that young should not be on the computer a lot.i would make sure the computer had some kind of control settings on there. if something at school is really stressing her out maybe your mom could home school her?
