Picture from google images

This is a common complain I get from many parents that their children do not want to go to school.

Being mom of two young boys I too have had days when my sons have refused to go to their schools.

I remember my older son was in St Marys’ school Pune, class 1, when one day he started crying in the morning with stomach ache.

Naturally I let him rest at home. But within an hour he was jumping around as if nothing had happened. But then stomach aches are not chronic so I let him play.

Next morning again, the moment I woke him up, he started crying of the same stomach pain. So I made him sit in the toilet until the bus was gone! The moment he heard me that his was bus was gone, he was all fine and smiling.

By now I was aware it was not his tummy that was creating any pain but something else.

So we sat watching TV and eating his favorite food, Venky’s chicken nuggets. In the midst if the happy moments, I asked him about his class, if his teacher ever scolded him, if his friends fought with him, if his classmates made fun of him. But instead he was happily chomping away the nuggets. Then I asked him if his driver ever said or touched him or anyone on the bus misbehaved with him or if the mausi (bus attendent) was rude with him, but none of these were really any problem as per him.

Slowly after casually chatting continued he said, ” Mom, my best friend has been moved to another seat, and I do not like the new boy who sits next to me.”

I said, ” Why you do not like your new seatmate?”

He replied, ” Because, he does not share his color pencils with me. My best friend used to let me use his color pencils.”

So the next morning I met up with his class teacher and asked if there has been any change in the class seating arrangement. And she confirmed the same. So I told her the whole stomach pain incident and how my son was not interested in coming to the school because of that one tiny shuffle. She immediately agreed to put the best friends together.

That was the last time he had tummy ache in St Mary’s school.

A week back after many years, again I heard a similar complaint, but this time it came from my younger son.

After drinking up his milk, he coughed and threw up the entire milk. After cleaning and making him relax in-front of the  TV he was all fine and ready to go to his school.

The next morning, he came to me with his glass of milk, and complained that he was nauseated by the smell of the milk. I thought may be yesterday’s sensation  reminded him of the entire puking , so I let him  not drink the milk and let him go to the school.

He came back from his school in his usual happy mood. In the evening he happily drank a glassful of milk. At night, before going to his bed he said, ” Please do not give me milk in the morning, just the thought of it giving me nausea. ”

Day 3, the moment I wake him up, he reminds me that he is already nauseated so no milk. So I ask him to eat a banana instead. Since he has 20 minutes more to leave for the bus stand, I asked him to water the plants and read newspaper with me. When it’s just 2 minutes to left for him to go to the bus stand, he starts complaining of nausea again. This time I get worried. So he bunks the school as I thought I must take him to the doctor.

But just 10 minutes later he is playing with his Spiderman as if nothing had happened. At lunch time my friend calls up to find out why he did not go to the school. As he is watching TV and eating his lunch, he knew he is the topic of the conversation. So after explaining the entire incident to my friend, I added loudly that we are going to the hospital after lunch if his nausea does not stop and give him an injection to stop it. I could see him suddenly getting into an alert posture. So I continue more on injections and doctors in the Jehangir hospital. He is not very fond of any clinic or hospital at all.

So the moment I was done with call, he said, ” Mom, I am feeling better now. I think we need not go to the hospital.”

I said, ” No! but tomorrow morning you will again have this bad feeling and will not go to the school. So lets go and get an injection. For one month you will not have any nausea.”

In the evening he finished his glass of milk and said, ” See mom, no nausea. I can drink milk.”

At night before dinner and after dinner I was reminded of the same thing. In the morning, he woke up and said, ” You can give me milk today, I am fine.”

I hugged and said, ” I am so thankful that you are fine now.”

So he went off to his school with no nausea or any such complaint. The fear of injection worked well with him.

Now my older son came to know that his brother could bunk the school because of the nausea complaint. So next morning he suddenly has tummy pain! Since he has only 2 minutes left to leave for the bus stand, I am really mad. So I rush him to the loo and ask the guard to make the bus driver wait till my son reaches there. But after 5 minutes, I could see there was no sign of any relief. So I call the driver to carry on.

After 10 minutes, my son is just not interested in leaving the loo. Since it 6:30am, and I am as usual groggy due to lack of sleep, I stomp off to the bed.

When I woke up to send my younger one to the school, the older one is fast asleep. He had changed into his home dress, kept the lunch box in the fridge! Seeing the lunch box in the fridge made me feel proud of his presence of mind. But I had to make sure he did not take me for a ride and bunked the school again.

So I woke him up, gave him his breakfast and asked him to start studying period wise all subjects one by one as it would happen in the school.

He thought I was kidding. But then when till 3:00pm he could not budge from his seat and was made to study subject after subject. By evening he understood very well that bunking is no more fun. 🙂 Will post if my sons have any newer ideas to bunk school.

I am sure you all have your incidents to share too. I would love to read them too. So do write your comments below. And must share this post on Facebooks or twitter right now.