On Being His Mom

Yesterday when The Boy came home from school he wanted nothing else just to be by me. Then he struggled through his homework. I was beginning to suspect that something was up. Then he struggled through his football practice. More than his usual “let’s see how much I can get away with not doing.” By the time he went to bed I was sure he was either getting sick or just overly tired. Either way I knew he was off. When he woke up this morning singing away in his room I wasn’t entirely convinced his being “off” was over.

Being the mom of a child who communicates differently than you do has its challenges to be sure. He can’t tell me how he’s feeling other than by pointing to different spots and moaning or saying “ow.” The silver lining in this, I find, is that I’ve learned how to read his clues. Or hear what he’s not saying.

I wasn’t surprised, then, to get a call from the school saying that he had a fever and needed to be picked up. I don’t have a diagnosis other than “off.” And as soon as I got him home where he had a couple hours of one on one time with the littlest sister he was closer to being back “on.”

Sometimes all it takes is being home.