The Jokes Fall Flat

Morgan got into the car today in a huff. He was clearly upset. I was on the phone with my mom and asked her to hold for a minute while I tried to (excuse the reference) decipher what was wrong. "Some third graders made fun of me. It was mean. They said they could see my face," he said. Well, that was clear as glass.

I let him speak to Mom in the hopes that maybe he would further his explanation of the events. Nope, not happening. If anything, more things that had gone wrong today came up. It seems that a boy or two might not like Morgan and have let it be known. This, understandably,  upsets Morgan. He started to cry/go into a meltdown over missing her, so I asked him to hand over the phone to his brother so that I could try to calm him down. Once we were back home, I tried to get to the bottom of things.

I asked him to walk me through his day. When I do things like that, I kind of ask myself "why?" because it's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle but with several puzzles going together to make one. Morgan gives me plenty of details, they are in chronological order, but they are sentence fragments. They are half thoughts with the other part stuck in his head and upsetting him or amusing him. It can be frustrating on my end, to be honest. The puzzle pieces don't frickin' fit.

It appears that the first problem which really bothered him was a boy knocking another boy's work off of his desk. Morgan somehow was accused of doing this? I have no idea. I remember being that age and wanting to point fingers at my sister, even jokingly, or another kid in order to keep out of trouble. Morgan being the literal thinker he is took this to mean that this little boy is, in his words, "out to get him" and is now afraid of him. Thing is, these two were friends up until probably Monday. Okay, moving on...

The second major issue, and the one which inspired the title of this post happened in what I'm now referring to as the riders pod. You see, the school puts all of the kiddos who are car riders into a group which is between two buildings in a covered courtyard. They aren't separated by grade that I am aware of because Morgan's always talking about kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and third graders in the afternoons. At no other time than early mornings do these four groups ever get together. Anyways, I know that the noise sets Morgan off. He's had to, on several occasions, walk up to the front area (the loading zone) to get a sensory break. He's testy by the time I get him, so I try to arrive early.

Today, I was early but not early enough. It was rainy, so the carline was inching like a drunk caterpillar. Morgan didn't get a sensory break because the school was short staffed, I think. So, he (I think, best as I could glean from our conversation) tried to make conversation - practicing social skills? - with two third graders. The third grade boys teased him, he says. The "we can see your face thing." Apparently, it was over him not having freckles. I'm not kidding. My kid meltdown over this.

Why? I can see how badly his feeling are hurt. I get that he's upset. But, from what I can tell, the kids were  just making an observation, or, at worst, making a joke. Which obviously fell incredibly flat and wrong.

Back to the facial cues drawing board? Yep.

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