Why would a 5 Year Old Want to Die?

6/3/2019 – Monday

Last Thursday when I picked J up at daycare (H was home sick with Mimi) a teacher gave me an incident report stating that J said he wanted to kill himself earlier in the day. It went on to say, that when questioned, J clarified that he didn’t want to be there was all. I thanked the teacher and said I’d have a conversation with J. Inside me everything went fuzzy and I had to focus really hard on pretending to be unfazed. How did J ever hear about killing oneself as a thing? Was he depressed? Should I get him a therapist? What can I do differently to make him happy? When I talked to him on the car ride home he said he wanted to be alive and that he just didn’t want to be at school that day. I tried to tell him how great it is to be alive and that we’re so lucky to be blessed with life and how precious it is. But the dude is five, it’s not like these nuggets I tell myself everyday to stay upbeat are making him see the light. He doesn’t even understand what killing ones self is. But how the heck did he hear that to even say it? He probably caught it in a song or on a show and it registered. He remembers everything. He’s so smart. I worry about him being sad and scared in public settings. At home and with close friends he’s always having fun. I worry he secludes himself with the bigger groups. When I picked him up the other day, his class was outside and he was standing in the corner by himself picking dandelions. Then Friday evening at his graduation, he threw up and couldn’t go on stage with his classmates to sing. I don’t know how much was nerves and how much was the fact that he was running a fever and feeling sick. He did rally to accept the diploma when they called him. I know he has lots of good friends at school. I can’t expect everyone to think he’s as awesome as I think he is. I hope he’s strong enough to ignore the haters, love him for him, and be him always. There will be people that love him and people that don’t. There’s a lot of shitty and mean people in the world, I hope he stands up to them instead of trying to please them and be their friend. There’s plenty of good people to go around. I wasted way too much time growing up trying to be friends with jerks. I sacrificed my self-respect because I didn’t have any confidence.

Oh shutup, J is a natural born leader that people want to be around. He knows what he wants and is able to convince other people what he wants is what they want. I feel like I’m projecting my rough time from 7th – 11th grade on to his pre-school experience. The dude was sick, he was having a bad day, take it easy. He’s fine.

I’m Here for You

5/8/19 – Wednesday

Celtics season is over today. Bucks won in five. A Star is Born was pretty shitty. In the morning when I drop you boys off at daycare I always tell you to have fun and be nice to people. Lately I’ve been throwing in listen to your teachers and give everything 100% effort, but I don’t want to muddle the message too much. Have fun and be nice to people pretty much covers it.

I think a lot about how much I love you boys. Usually after I drop you off and I’m in the car on the way to work after the teachers have had to peel you off of me. I don’t want to leave you either. I want to take you out of there and go to the zoo. I imagine how your day might go. This morning I heard one of the kids tell J he liked his new haircut and that he looked handsome. You boys are out there in the world of daycare every day. I worry you get sad. The teachers say you get happy as soon as I leave, but I’m sure you have moments during the day when you wish you could just be with mom and dad instead of with all those people you don’t know as well. I have those moments too. I was always pretty sensitive. Like if my mom was the last one to pick me up I’d get sad. And I used to wish my Dad didn’t work so late. Sometimes he’d get home from work early on Friday and play HORSE with us. I want you to know that even if I’m not there all the time, you’re my number one priority in this world. I’ll take care of the expected stuff like food, clothes, and shelter, but I’ll also show you how to have fun, work hard, and be nice to people. Beyond that, it’s mostly up to you. I’ll get into whatever you’re into and help where I can. I hope you’re comfortable telling me how you’re feeling about things. I might not be able to help you, but I can always give you a hug. Tonight, I was staring into H’s eyes as he was laying in his bed. He kept his gaze right on me and we had a good old staring contest. You’re not a mind reader, but my eyes were telling you I love you and I’ve got you.