| DD is at the end of 1st grade now and my sweet little girl comes home raging and in a bad mood some days. What is going on? I've tried asking her and talking to her...she is fine after being home for 30 minutes and eating. She says that there is nothing going on, do you think it's friend issues, teacher issues, or end of teh school year chaos? |
This, right here. She’s got the hangries, poor thing! Pick her up or meet her at the bus stop with a bottle of water and a snack. |
+1 |
awwww you think that's it? |
| Yep. It took about an hour for us to get home from elementary school. I learned pretty quickly to either meet her at school with a snack or to take her from school to the corner produce market - a pear and some cheese went a long way. |
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In my home country we had more than an hour for lunch. Here in some schools the kids barely have 20 minutes. A lot of them can't eat as much as they should, because of time wasted standing in line, and chatting, and opening and closing containers, etc...
So a solid breakfast and snack are needed. |
| Elem lunch is not conducive to eating. She is just hungry. |
Thanks all, we will pack on the snacks! |
| This is my 2nd grader, too. She's hangry and tried. We give her a big snack and let her chill out and do nothing. She usually watches a show and then listens to an audiobook before dinner. |
| Another vote for her being hangry. My kids were like this, and that was pre-COVID when there were plenty of opportunities for snacks throughout the day. I always had food available the minute they walked in the door. |
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Definitely food, but also don't hover and interrogate.
I learned very quickly to treat my elementary kid like a wild animal after school: slide the food in quickly, back away cautiously so you don't get mauled, and give them space. Mine needed time to decompress and refuel/rehydrate before she was functional again. If I tried to ask her about her day, she'd either shut down or completely lose her s**t she'd been holding together with such effort all day. Adults often forget how exhausting it is to be on your best behavior all day at that age. |
+ um yea, that is it. Plus, she also probably needs a good 30 min to unwind and down-time and not blasted with 20 questions about her day the minute she walks in. |