Doubt or Not?

One incident yesterday morning made me realize we should not jump to conclusion when dealing with a child.

My boy called me from mum's place to tell me that his feet is painful and he doesn't want to go to school. He doesn't detest school so its definitely not because he wants to skip school hence he said that. In fact, over the weekend, he did complain about his painful toe. He went for swimming and cut his toe against the wall tiles in the pool. The cut isn't deep but enough to make him feel the pain.

So instead of doubting that he is lying just so he can don't attend school, I asked if it was because of the incident in the pool and I gave him a solution which still allowed him to go to school. He was convinced and listened to what I said with no disagreement or reluctance.

This episode made me realize we should learn to listen to the kid first and then indirectly teach them a solution to get around the problem he had.

So what did I tell him?

I merely asked him to get a plaster from grandma to put on his toe and then wear his crocs to school instead of his school shoes. That way he don't have to wear socks which will cause discomfort to the cut he has on his toe.

And so he went to school in his crocs and didn't have any further complains when I got home for the day.

When I checked on him in the evening, he said it was still painful and I asked him to put on some aloe vera gel which he did.