Extremely vacant and defiant

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Hi,

Just wondering if anyone could shed any light on why my son (6) seems to be 'vacant' the past couple of days - paying no mind to anything anyone says and looking straight past us when we talk and just doing whatever he pleases (throwing a ball at his 2 year old sisters face and trying to hit her with a (rubber) cricket bat, he adores and normally wouldn't do such a thing.

He has just started primary school (a month ago) and I understand he is tired and probably overwhelmed? could this be the reason?

My first reaction would be that he may be coming down with something. Sometimes when people catch a bug they start feeling bad or just "off" for a few days beforehand, and kids are no different. I'd keep an eye on him for symptoms of whatever might be going on in your area.

Another thought is that since he's just started school he may have had something happen there that is causing him to be preoccupied. It could be a good thing or a bad thing or just a confusing thing, and he's focusing on it and thinking about it a lot and gets frustrated when he's interrupted or for some other related reason. I'd ask him if somethings wrong or if something is on his mind or bothering him and if he wants to talk. I'd mention that sometimes it makes you feel better to just talk about something that you are thinking about.

He could also be just tired. Since he's just started school he is obviously doing more things and being occupied on a continuous basis all day long and being constantly busy like that will wear you out. It could be mental or physical tiredness, or a combination of both and it could have been building up since school started. That would also explain the irritability.

It could also be a combination of any of those things or something completely different, but those three things would be my first thoughts. I know that when I was a kid I would have horrible temper fits and meltdowns and just be a total little s**t for a few days before I got sick with something. My mother told me about that when I was older and I do remember some of those fits, and I'm the aspie in our family.

You might also want to ask this in the parents forum, but word it differently so it's not a double post. I would imagine it would be ok to ask the same things in two different forums as long as you aren't spamming or double posting.

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Thanks OM,

I think you could be onto something - he didn't have much of an appetite yesterday and drank loads of water so perhaps a sore throat.

I will ask him if there is something on his mind but he never shares anything so it will be tricky...

It sounds to me like something is bothering him and he feels sorta helpless and alone... It sounds like he's in one of my "the world sucks and everyone hates me so I just don't give a f**k" moods. But hey, he's 6, and he's not me, so I don't really know.