Do you have a child who jsut refuses to go to school? They tell you they are not going or they tell you they are scared to go? This is called school refusal...A change in schools the transition between primaray school and high school... Even someone being sick at home or any sort of stress can cause this...This is similar to Mondayitis which I have already written about before here..

Your child might get upset in the morning and have tummy pains or even headaches and there is no physical explaination as to why...There is not even and real behavioural problems and they do not even try to hide from you that they do not want to go to school...

There are many reasons for this to happen but a few have been identified as being the main reasons why a child might refuse school....

Sometimes a child might get seperation anxiety...After I was in hospital for my brain tumour removal Michaela and John we scared to be away from me...Terrified I would go back into hospital and die while they were at school...They got this quite bad even if I was late home from where I was they would get upset...

Then there is the jealousy issue...Sometimes kids who go to school have this idea that we are going out with their younger siblings spoiling them rotten why they are at school working hard...Usually this is not the case but sometimtes they feel this way...Mine have at times I know that...

there could just be problems at school fo them...look for bullying or being a loner..School can be a lonely place with no friends...They might have come from a small school into a big one and feel like they are a very small fish in this huge ocean...They might be having problems with one of their teachers even.... the list is endless

As parent we have to face this head on even if it rips our heart out sending them to school when they say they are sick...But the longer you leave it the harder it will be....The best way to fix this is to find out what is causing it in the first place...Think over the things I jsut wrote and see if anything rings a bell...

Or you could try some of these ideas....

Do not let your child see you are upset or worried about them...I know that sounds rough but it is really important...
Listen really hard when your child talks and see if you can read between the lines at all in what they are saying maybe you might be able to pick something up in conversation...
Even though I said dont let your child see you are worried till tell them you understand what they are feeling...
Chat with the teacher never know what they might have noticed at school...
Tell your child when you will be back when you go somewhere and if you deviate from this call them...
Tell them all about your boring day and how mundane it is...Make them think being home is not fun at all...
Always be there to pick them up if you say you will make sure there is a plan two in the event plan one is not going to work for some reason...
If you are really struggling at the getting out of the car time at the school say they get upset so you do then maybe get someone else to pick them up and drop them off for you....
Lastly something that worked for me with Michaela and John was I gave them a small photo of me to take to school with them for a couple of months until everything all calmed down....

School refusal can be hard on the mum because all we want to do is protect our kids and make them feel good but if you leave it too long believe we you will struggle with school everyday...

Have a great day
Cheers
Angie