Principal Gets Mad At Mother Who Pulled Her Depressed Son From School, Apologizes When They See The Results
Being a parent means making the right decisions for your family, especially for your children. And if you see that your kid is having a hard time at school and dealing with mental health issues, it’s time to take drastic steps. Like taking them out of school until they feel like themselves again.
Twitter user Titi told the internet a story of real familial love: her mother pulled Titi’s brother, who was in the 3rd grade at the time, out of school for a whole month because he was depressed.
She told her son’s principal that his mental health was the priority here and after giving him the attention and support he needed, he went back to school with extremely positive results.
Twitter user Titi told the internet how her mother pulled her depressed brother from school for a month
Image credits: callhertiti
Image credits: callhertiti
Image credits: callhertiti
Image credits: callhertiti
After Titi’s mother gave her son the time that he deserved and really got to know him, he went back to school and excelled, finishing top of his class. This really goes to show that we can all thrive if we have a strong foundation and people who love us unconditionally.
Here’s Titi’s mother and brother, all grown up
Image credits: callhertiti
According to Psycom, there are some essential things that parents should do at home if their child is depressed. For instance, encouraging them to exercise and move daily will help them a lot. But it doesn’t mean that you should immediately sign your child up for football practice, ballet, and horse-riding all at once. Something as simple as a family walk or going to the park to play catch can work wonders.
Of course, exercise should be supplemented with a healthy diet. That’s where home-cooked meals come into play. Eating together helps bring the family together and cooking your child’s food yourself means that you can make sure that they’re getting all the nutrients that they need.
Besides getting lots of movement and eating plenty of healthy food, it’s vital that your child gets enough rest: they’re still growing and sleep is irreplaceable. Taking the time to talk to your child and really listen to them, their thoughts, and their feelings are also very important.
Getting these basics right means that your child will have a strong foundation to fight depression. However, in some cases, some form of medication is necessary and a doctor should be consulted. If it comes to that, parents ought to supervise any medication that they take because it’s unreasonable to expect a depressed kid to be able to do that by themselves.
This is how some Twitter users reacted. Some of them had similar stories to tell
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This is so comforting. It's good to know more and more parents are starting to open their eyes. For so long mental health has been considered nothing to worry about for not being "palpable" or "visible" like open wounds. Whenever someone says "okay, but how should I deal with it?!", I'll send links to this article. It's really not hard to help someone in need. Just friggin' give some love, Jesus...
Mental health is extremely important and more and more schools (at least where I live) are starting to understand. I give my daughter “mental health” days off school. Usually only once a term. Her mental health has really been struggling this year, she has recently started medication and we have started to see an improvement. I am so please that this mum knew her son needed help and gave him the time he needed. And he should be really proud of his achievements.
Those scars can run pretty deep. I'm almost 40 years old and I hate my 4th grade teacher's guts and hope the bastard is rotting in a hole in the ground. The man not only bullied me, but he encouraged my classmates to bully me too. That was the year I was shipped off to live with my Grandmother, and go to a better school. Turns out, I'm not an idiot, my previous school was just a hopelessly toxic environment. I'd probably be dead or in prison if that hadn't happened.
Same, my HS was awful. My Dad died when I was 16 and my HS was horrible to me about it, told me to 'get over it' at one time-- this was the vice principal!! And I was often treated like I was stupid by my teachers... yet my exams (which were anonymous and independently graded) were As and Bs, the teachers would give me Cs. I sometimes wonder if I had a great and supportive school, would I be doing better? Those experiences were really demoralizing and really made me hate school .
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I pulled my son out of high school for 3 months and home schooled him because his Psychiatrist had him on the wrong medications and wouldn't help me ween him off and get him on the right medications. He kept having outburst at school landing him in cuffs and in front of a judge from time to time. When the judge asked why he kept seeing my son, I told him about the problem with his meds. The judge sent my son's psychiatrist a subpoena and told him "You did it your way, now we will do it the mom's way." After 3 months, my son had calmed enough to return to school. Not all professionals know what they're doing. Sometimes mom knows best!
Honestly my parents have no clue that I’m depressed. If I tried to tell them they’ll assume I don’t know what it means or that I’m kidding. I try my best to cope on my own and be positive. So far the only reasons I’ve been able to make it through are just countless trivial things like “you haven’t watched Endgame yet” or “you haven’t even gotten your first kiss”. For some reason that works better than anything else so I’ll keep doing it
Thanks guys. It nice to know that there are people out there who get what I’m feeling. I hope you have a nice day! 🤗🥰
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I was sent to a private "christian" school from 1st grade through HS graduation. I was clinically depressed - but had no idea that I was. Depression was a sin, donchaknow. Despite having the highest IQ in the entire school, I graduated 14th in a class of 15. Still working through all that.
same for me! Man it was hard. I feel you on that subject.
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This is a wonderful story. Mom's instincts were correct -- she pulled her son out of school, spent a lot of time with him, etc., he got better, and thrived. BUT, all too often, a child's depression is a direct result of being bullied in school. They could be pulled out of school by their parents and recover, but then the horror would begin again after they returned to school.
I don't usually brag, but this year alone my daughter has had at least 5 mental health days. Im sure the 2 this week alone when she was "sick" with a sore throat was an additional 2. But I know when she's feeling depressed and needs to wind down from the stresses of school. Her depression started towards the end of 3rd grade and fortunately I worked in the same school as her. So my room was a good way for her to decompress. Unfortunately she's moved on the Middle School (Secondary) and she doesn't have the luxury of mom being there all the time. So when those days come I literally call the school and say she's taking a mental health day and havent had any problems.
Except that she misses school work and has to catch up, but because teachers are overworked it's difficult for them to help kids do this. The kids get more anxious because they've got work to catch up on, so they con their parents into letting them stay home, by staying home they miss more work...........and around it goes. This is my personal experience from 20 years of teaching. 1 or 2 mental health days a term is ok. 1 or 2 a week is detrimental.
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I did this 20 years ago, when I realized I had a self harming, suicidal, anxiety ridden 12 year old. The school took the helpful step of having us both arrested and charged, then the child protective service took her from our care and stuck her in a group home, where another child in the group home went on a rampage with a knife and seriously injured two staff and a resident . She witnessed the whole thing and now has PTSD in additional to her other mental health issues, that followed her into adulthood, because she did not get the help she needed when I tried to get it for her. There is nothing worse as a parent than doing the right thing for your child and being vilified for it!
I wish my mom had done this for me. I think she was afraid of what would happen if she did though. I was bullied throughout my entire school career from preschool to my very last day of high school. It wasn't until I was in high school that my mom allowed me to have days where I could stay home because of my mental health and eventually withdrew me from school altogether.
All my mother did was say, "You've got to be better than that," and "I TOLD you high school was different from primary school!" with the result that I was clinically depressed for years and am still not 100% right over 40 years later.
I remember being in 1st grade and sobbing every day before school because I just didn't want to go. I have severe social anxiety now and I often wonder if being forced to go to school made it worse. My mom just didn't care. She would literally push me out the door and lock it so I couldn't get back in. She could care less that I was screaming and pounding on the door begging to be let back in. When I started missing the bus to stay home she would drag me to the bus stop and threaten me with a public spanking if I didn't get on that bus. I'd cry at school because I couldn't figure things out and my teacher got so mad she'd make me stay inside from recess by myself to do extra worksheets. First grade was absolute hell for me and the grades after weren't much better. I never really had friends. Never a best friend. I'm always worried that I annoy people by being so clingy and a brain injury made it so I get so anxious I can barely leave the house. Thank God for my husband and his patience
I know I've already commented, but I wanted to say one more thing. If there's someone in your life that comes to you when they're struggling with depression, there's one thing you have to do: Be a good listener. When they come to you, you don't have to preach, you don't have to teach, you don't have to talk. Just listen. If they want and ask for your help, give them truly healthy advice. Suggest them to a therapist, help them talk and get things out; be there for them. If they just want to vent, all you have to do is listen. Being listened to or having a listening ear is therapeutic for you and the person suffering. Just. Listen.
I'm still a minor, but I also feel that mental health is incredibly important. During my sixth grade year I was suffering (don't know if it was depression or what). I was always stressed and working, felt like I never got to do anything that made me happy, and felt like I wasn't in control of myself. No matter what, I was just a a working puppet, and that terrified me. I also had suicidal thoughts, but never executed them because I've always wanted to be a mom, and I had to get to that point in life. It was pretty serious though, and so whenever I told myself I couldn't hurt myself, there was always a small voice that told me it was because I was a wimp. If I was brave and good, I could do it and get it over with. I have amazing parents, they've always been there for me, comforted me and taught me. Even though I never talked to them about this, I feel they would've listened and helped. I'm all better now, but I still treat mental health very seriously.
I really wish schools would take care with people's mental health because it can be even more important than physical health. It takes so long to see a psychologist or to go up to a person to talk to. Sometimes I really wish mental health was easier to help but its realy hard to stop habits and to tell your mind that every is fine or will be fine.
I LOVE THIS MOM and I love the photo of them "grown up." I have no clue how average schools with class sizes of 38 and parents who work two jobs do it. I work from home and noticed the kids (8 and 11 y/o) down the hall had a sitter from 3–6pm, but their dad sometimes didn't get home until 7:30 or 8pm. A couple of times the sitter didn't show up and they asked if they could eat with me when they smelled food I was cooking. I left a note and we had a discussion about how much the sitter cost, food shopping (it's easy to pick up extra groceries), and homework. When I broke my ankle, the kids came over and helped me. We put together a shopping list to have delivered, they learned to prepare food, serve and clean up. They learned to do laundry, change out of school clothes into play clothes, take the trash to the chute (we lived on the 4th floor), vacuum and dust. If you have no kids, reach out and offer some help.
If only I was afforded such an opportunity... at 59, I still struggle. I am only still alive because I don't want my sons to think they weren't worth me staying around.
Then there's the stories of the hundreds of other kids who got pulled out of school, lost their way, the parents couldn't handle them, they turned to crime out of boredom, then drugs etc. etc. I've seen this story too many times to count. The happy ending is nice, but certainly not a given.
I was miserable my sophomore and junior years in high school. Nobody ever heard of a "mental health" day and my parents just told me to "tough it out". My younger brother reacted by having migraines (he has a chronic migraine condition now managed with medication) and missed a lot of school. I just had to be miserable and didn't do very well in school....or my first try at college either (they made me go even though I didn't want to because I knew I wasn't ready). I wish they had listened.
What a lovely mum: good on her for standing up to her son’s head teacher, and more importantly, for spending such valuable time with her son. He’s a very lucky boy.
He didnt have a depression. he was clearly stressed out. You dont get out of a depression in a month. I am really glad he is better, and that is all that matters! Stress syndrome is more what he suffered from, which is just as real and horrible!
While I was out from school, my parents taught me instead. They were pretty darned good at it. Because of them I overcame my fear of reading. I love books now. I'm glad they stepped up to the task, some parents think children can't have "real pain" and that the school 100% of the time knows what's best for their child. As a parent, YOU need to decide what is best for your child. Not let the world make those decisions for you- because you may not like what the world decides to teach. Even though we have schools, it's still important imo that parents take active roles or at least attentive roles in what their children are learning, (or gleaning from what they learn.)
We are so lucky to have parents that know when to stand up for us. Many people dismiss children. It's unfortunate, too many stories are pretty much copy-paste of this. The tale goes the exact same way for many people. If they hadn't done something, I know in my heart I would not be who I am today. Good job parents! :)
I fully support the concept, but the parents are under other requirements too. Such as the potential for child protective services to take your child away because they view you taking them out of school as not in their best interest. So, that causes MORE problems for the child, not to mention the parents. We need to fix the system in both education AND protective services so that parents can actually, you know, BE A PARENT!
I don't think we need every detail. The important part is she listened to him and his needs, helped him through a hard time and it worked out for both of them. But I guess it's a valid question for those is similar situation who also want to take their very young kids out of school but are too busy and have problem with the logistics, but every situation is different; she could do it but maybe someone else can't even through they want to ... but at least they can listen to their kids and take them seriously when it's needed (that doesn't take a lot of money, only some time and it's not that difficult, right?)
Load More Replies... This is so comforting. It's good to know more and more parents are starting to open their eyes. For so long mental health has been considered nothing to worry about for not being "palpable" or "visible" like open wounds. Whenever someone says "okay, but how should I deal with it?!", I'll send links to this article. It's really not hard to help someone in need. Just friggin' give some love, Jesus...
Mental health is extremely important and more and more schools (at least where I live) are starting to understand. I give my daughter “mental health” days off school. Usually only once a term. Her mental health has really been struggling this year, she has recently started medication and we have started to see an improvement. I am so please that this mum knew her son needed help and gave him the time he needed. And he should be really proud of his achievements.
Those scars can run pretty deep. I'm almost 40 years old and I hate my 4th grade teacher's guts and hope the bastard is rotting in a hole in the ground. The man not only bullied me, but he encouraged my classmates to bully me too. That was the year I was shipped off to live with my Grandmother, and go to a better school. Turns out, I'm not an idiot, my previous school was just a hopelessly toxic environment. I'd probably be dead or in prison if that hadn't happened.
Same, my HS was awful. My Dad died when I was 16 and my HS was horrible to me about it, told me to 'get over it' at one time-- this was the vice principal!! And I was often treated like I was stupid by my teachers... yet my exams (which were anonymous and independently graded) were As and Bs, the teachers would give me Cs. I sometimes wonder if I had a great and supportive school, would I be doing better? Those experiences were really demoralizing and really made me hate school .
Load More Replies... I pulled my son out of high school for 3 months and home schooled him because his Psychiatrist had him on the wrong medications and wouldn't help me ween him off and get him on the right medications. He kept having outburst at school landing him in cuffs and in front of a judge from time to time. When the judge asked why he kept seeing my son, I told him about the problem with his meds. The judge sent my son's psychiatrist a subpoena and told him "You did it your way, now we will do it the mom's way." After 3 months, my son had calmed enough to return to school. Not all professionals know what they're doing. Sometimes mom knows best!
Honestly my parents have no clue that I’m depressed. If I tried to tell them they’ll assume I don’t know what it means or that I’m kidding. I try my best to cope on my own and be positive. So far the only reasons I’ve been able to make it through are just countless trivial things like “you haven’t watched Endgame yet” or “you haven’t even gotten your first kiss”. For some reason that works better than anything else so I’ll keep doing it
Thanks guys. It nice to know that there are people out there who get what I’m feeling. I hope you have a nice day! 🤗🥰
Load More Replies... I was sent to a private "christian" school from 1st grade through HS graduation. I was clinically depressed - but had no idea that I was. Depression was a sin, donchaknow. Despite having the highest IQ in the entire school, I graduated 14th in a class of 15. Still working through all that.
same for me! Man it was hard. I feel you on that subject.
Load More Replies... This is a wonderful story. Mom's instincts were correct -- she pulled her son out of school, spent a lot of time with him, etc., he got better, and thrived. BUT, all too often, a child's depression is a direct result of being bullied in school. They could be pulled out of school by their parents and recover, but then the horror would begin again after they returned to school.
I don't usually brag, but this year alone my daughter has had at least 5 mental health days. Im sure the 2 this week alone when she was "sick" with a sore throat was an additional 2. But I know when she's feeling depressed and needs to wind down from the stresses of school. Her depression started towards the end of 3rd grade and fortunately I worked in the same school as her. So my room was a good way for her to decompress. Unfortunately she's moved on the Middle School (Secondary) and she doesn't have the luxury of mom being there all the time. So when those days come I literally call the school and say she's taking a mental health day and havent had any problems.
Except that she misses school work and has to catch up, but because teachers are overworked it's difficult for them to help kids do this. The kids get more anxious because they've got work to catch up on, so they con their parents into letting them stay home, by staying home they miss more work...........and around it goes. This is my personal experience from 20 years of teaching. 1 or 2 mental health days a term is ok. 1 or 2 a week is detrimental.
Load More Replies... I did this 20 years ago, when I realized I had a self harming, suicidal, anxiety ridden 12 year old. The school took the helpful step of having us both arrested and charged, then the child protective service took her from our care and stuck her in a group home, where another child in the group home went on a rampage with a knife and seriously injured two staff and a resident . She witnessed the whole thing and now has PTSD in additional to her other mental health issues, that followed her into adulthood, because she did not get the help she needed when I tried to get it for her. There is nothing worse as a parent than doing the right thing for your child and being vilified for it!
I wish my mom had done this for me. I think she was afraid of what would happen if she did though. I was bullied throughout my entire school career from preschool to my very last day of high school. It wasn't until I was in high school that my mom allowed me to have days where I could stay home because of my mental health and eventually withdrew me from school altogether.
All my mother did was say, "You've got to be better than that," and "I TOLD you high school was different from primary school!" with the result that I was clinically depressed for years and am still not 100% right over 40 years later.
I remember being in 1st grade and sobbing every day before school because I just didn't want to go. I have severe social anxiety now and I often wonder if being forced to go to school made it worse. My mom just didn't care. She would literally push me out the door and lock it so I couldn't get back in. She could care less that I was screaming and pounding on the door begging to be let back in. When I started missing the bus to stay home she would drag me to the bus stop and threaten me with a public spanking if I didn't get on that bus. I'd cry at school because I couldn't figure things out and my teacher got so mad she'd make me stay inside from recess by myself to do extra worksheets. First grade was absolute hell for me and the grades after weren't much better. I never really had friends. Never a best friend. I'm always worried that I annoy people by being so clingy and a brain injury made it so I get so anxious I can barely leave the house. Thank God for my husband and his patience
I know I've already commented, but I wanted to say one more thing. If there's someone in your life that comes to you when they're struggling with depression, there's one thing you have to do: Be a good listener. When they come to you, you don't have to preach, you don't have to teach, you don't have to talk. Just listen. If they want and ask for your help, give them truly healthy advice. Suggest them to a therapist, help them talk and get things out; be there for them. If they just want to vent, all you have to do is listen. Being listened to or having a listening ear is therapeutic for you and the person suffering. Just. Listen.
I'm still a minor, but I also feel that mental health is incredibly important. During my sixth grade year I was suffering (don't know if it was depression or what). I was always stressed and working, felt like I never got to do anything that made me happy, and felt like I wasn't in control of myself. No matter what, I was just a a working puppet, and that terrified me. I also had suicidal thoughts, but never executed them because I've always wanted to be a mom, and I had to get to that point in life. It was pretty serious though, and so whenever I told myself I couldn't hurt myself, there was always a small voice that told me it was because I was a wimp. If I was brave and good, I could do it and get it over with. I have amazing parents, they've always been there for me, comforted me and taught me. Even though I never talked to them about this, I feel they would've listened and helped. I'm all better now, but I still treat mental health very seriously.
I really wish schools would take care with people's mental health because it can be even more important than physical health. It takes so long to see a psychologist or to go up to a person to talk to. Sometimes I really wish mental health was easier to help but its realy hard to stop habits and to tell your mind that every is fine or will be fine.
I LOVE THIS MOM and I love the photo of them "grown up." I have no clue how average schools with class sizes of 38 and parents who work two jobs do it. I work from home and noticed the kids (8 and 11 y/o) down the hall had a sitter from 3–6pm, but their dad sometimes didn't get home until 7:30 or 8pm. A couple of times the sitter didn't show up and they asked if they could eat with me when they smelled food I was cooking. I left a note and we had a discussion about how much the sitter cost, food shopping (it's easy to pick up extra groceries), and homework. When I broke my ankle, the kids came over and helped me. We put together a shopping list to have delivered, they learned to prepare food, serve and clean up. They learned to do laundry, change out of school clothes into play clothes, take the trash to the chute (we lived on the 4th floor), vacuum and dust. If you have no kids, reach out and offer some help.
If only I was afforded such an opportunity... at 59, I still struggle. I am only still alive because I don't want my sons to think they weren't worth me staying around.
Then there's the stories of the hundreds of other kids who got pulled out of school, lost their way, the parents couldn't handle them, they turned to crime out of boredom, then drugs etc. etc. I've seen this story too many times to count. The happy ending is nice, but certainly not a given.
I was miserable my sophomore and junior years in high school. Nobody ever heard of a "mental health" day and my parents just told me to "tough it out". My younger brother reacted by having migraines (he has a chronic migraine condition now managed with medication) and missed a lot of school. I just had to be miserable and didn't do very well in school....or my first try at college either (they made me go even though I didn't want to because I knew I wasn't ready). I wish they had listened.
What a lovely mum: good on her for standing up to her son’s head teacher, and more importantly, for spending such valuable time with her son. He’s a very lucky boy.
He didnt have a depression. he was clearly stressed out. You dont get out of a depression in a month. I am really glad he is better, and that is all that matters! Stress syndrome is more what he suffered from, which is just as real and horrible!
While I was out from school, my parents taught me instead. They were pretty darned good at it. Because of them I overcame my fear of reading. I love books now. I'm glad they stepped up to the task, some parents think children can't have "real pain" and that the school 100% of the time knows what's best for their child. As a parent, YOU need to decide what is best for your child. Not let the world make those decisions for you- because you may not like what the world decides to teach. Even though we have schools, it's still important imo that parents take active roles or at least attentive roles in what their children are learning, (or gleaning from what they learn.)
We are so lucky to have parents that know when to stand up for us. Many people dismiss children. It's unfortunate, too many stories are pretty much copy-paste of this. The tale goes the exact same way for many people. If they hadn't done something, I know in my heart I would not be who I am today. Good job parents! :)
I fully support the concept, but the parents are under other requirements too. Such as the potential for child protective services to take your child away because they view you taking them out of school as not in their best interest. So, that causes MORE problems for the child, not to mention the parents. We need to fix the system in both education AND protective services so that parents can actually, you know, BE A PARENT!
I don't think we need every detail. The important part is she listened to him and his needs, helped him through a hard time and it worked out for both of them. But I guess it's a valid question for those is similar situation who also want to take their very young kids out of school but are too busy and have problem with the logistics, but every situation is different; she could do it but maybe someone else can't even through they want to ... but at least they can listen to their kids and take them seriously when it's needed (that doesn't take a lot of money, only some time and it's not that difficult, right?)
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