7 year old Son suddenly a handful - Real Mum story on MoM

9 Comments

I’m sure I am not the only person who has gone through this but I am at my wits end with my 7 year old Son. Up until a fortnight ago he has been a straight A student (in academy programs) with basically perfect behaviour at school. At home he was a pretty typical child. A fortnight ago this all changed. He has gone from a boy who has slept through the night since he was 6 months old to a boy who is lucky to sleep 2-3 hours a night. He will go to bed and then by 10pm he is up telling us he can’t sleep and if we put him back to bed he screams like it’s the end of the world. To let everyone else sleep i will get up with him and it’s at least 4am before he will go back to bed then it’s up at 6am for school. since we have given him a meditation app to listen to before bed he will now go to sleep but still gets up a number of times a night to see me. thankfully he goes back to bed but the quality of sleep he is getting is not great. Now at school he has been in trouble with the teacher/principal and had detention 3 days out of the last 4. when we ask him why/what’s going on all we get is ‘i don’t know’. We have taken things away from him, given him punishments, rewarded him on good days but it’s so out of the norm for him and I am hoping to get some advice from others that may have been through this. Nothing in our life has changed to disrupt him. If anything I have taken 6 weeks off work to be a stay at home mum while the kids settle back into school Sorry for the long winded story but to say we are lost and frustrated is an understatement. thanks.

Posted anonymously, 6th March 2014

9 Comments

- - Ellen said
  - 14 Aug 2021
    6:28 am
I see this is an old question and hope things have settled.
Suddenly not being able to sleep and screaming could indicate night terrors. Not being able to sleep impacts your functioning during the day
When this persistently happens I would go to the Gp who may refer to a sleep clinic.
I would refrain from punishments or rewards as this doesn’t sound like just naughty behaviour.

- - mom94125 said
  - 20 Jun 2015
    7:11 pm
i hope that she is a little more settled for you. hopefully

- - Sandra_S said
  - 22 May 2015
    5:51 pm
It’s good to read other people’s stories. My 7 year old sleeps all night but has a rally bad attitude.

- - mom113055 said
  - 09 Apr 2015
    6:07 pm
great story to read

- - pakeko said
  - 12 Feb 2015
    8:32 pm
It may pay to get him to talk to someone as there could be something else going on. Good luck with it all and hope you get your boy back soon

- - jodie80 said
  - 08 Mar 2014
    11:08 am
no sleep make kids play up . but when they wont sleep that hard.

- - fruitwood said
  - 07 Mar 2014
    8:57 pm
My 8 year old turned in to a nightmare overnight. After doing some investigating, I found out she was being bullied at school. SInce the bullying stopped, my child’s almost back to her old self. I’d ask around school and see if there has been any issues in the playground or class room.

- - taraleerobertson said
  - 06 Mar 2014
    7:13 pm
sounds like something has happened. it may have been in a dream, or something that may seem little to you. or he may just be going through a frustrated period. adults aren’t the only ones who gets stressed. i know that doesn’t help. but my 7year old and me seem to but heads over everything at the moment and its so upsetting

- - yyon4699 said
  - 06 Mar 2014
    5:09 pm
thank you for sharing your story