Posted by Ginella Kirkland on January 21, 1998 at 11:01:18:
Hi! I am a mom with three kids, and one of them is 13.
I don't know what to do to aleviate his problem.
See, his self esteem has always been low. I've read
articles and books and tried to help him, he went to a
psychoterapist last year concerning how to deal with
kids in his classroom, who pestered him daily about his
hispanic origins(already happened in another school),
and slow doing things, (he has been tested
with his consent to see if he had any problems
and the results were that this was just his personality
-it is just the way he is, there is nothing wrong with
him. They still call him names this year sometimes,
but the principal and I got the situation controlled.
Besides, he is a good student, a hard worker, he is in the Blue Honor Roll (89.3 GPA)
in a private school. See, my son was born in a
hispanoamerican country (doesn't speak Spanish, though,
my fault), and people here are still very prejudist about
hispanics and blacks. There are not many hispanics in
this place and parents teach their kids prejudism, also.
So other names they've called him are: Dirty hair
mexican, etc., etc. (we don't even know any mexicans).
We come from a very decent family and we show him
respect for other people, and that God looks at us the
same way, we go to Church on Sundays, Sunday School
I am a stay-at-home mom, and my children's mom.
Sports, he doesn't do them that well, and the kid
in his school team are awful to him. My son called
last night from a hotel. He is in a class trip. Other
kids have been pestering him and he was on the verge of
crying, so I noticed something was wrong and I asked him
to tell me. They are supposed to be having fun. I
told him this trip was very important for him, that he
will remember it for the rest of his life, to try to
enjoy it and not to let anyone spoil it. This didn't
seem to help, so I talked to the teacher and she said
she was going to see what she could do about it.
All this does is the opposite of bosting his self-esteem.
Tell me guys: do you have any ideas of what I can do for
him, what can help him boost his self esteem? Maybe
something that has worked for you? Does he have to
be 38 to find out he can do whatever he wants in
life and that he is a unique, precious individual?
Thank you, - Ginella