what else can i do?

the boy gets out of school at 12:20pm. since the first day of school, it's taken his class awhile to come out. today i found out why: apparently the boy is holding up the class a bit.

let me first say that my son is a patient, fairly meticulous, conscientious child, bordering on perfectionist. it's kind of unusual, and slightly worrisome, for a kid his age. i know this to be too true because i've always been that way too, in many ways. my mother raised me to do the best work i can do, in a neat and proper way. that lesson, combined with my overly ambitious goal to be as perfect as possible to please everyone, resulted in me ending up the way i have (i.e., screwy, slightly obsessive compulsive, neurotic about weird things, eager to please, etc.). and even though i know it's not a healthy way for young children to behave, i've passed this along to my son.

as a result, it appears my son takes forever to pack up at the end of the day, thereby holding up the rest of the class. the teacher said that he puts each piece of paper into his folder one by one and packs up very carefully, trying to be perfect and orderly, despite her requests to hurry it along. i told her i would talk to the boy, which i did after we got home. i even plan to have him practice packing up quickly (i already showed him how to more efficiently put papers into his folder) before tomorrow. but what else can i do?

my son is who he is. his meticulousness is just "how he was made" (as the boy would say). it is, of course, important that he learn to function within the confines of school and society by working within the timeframe given to him. but one thing i'm proud of as a parent is that i've taught him to do as much as possible on his own, even if that means he takes his time. i feel like that lesson is being tossed out the window, albeit gently. and it's always hard to hear criticism of your child, even if it's something minor like he doesn't pack up quickly enough.

i know that because i've talked to the boy about it, he'll do his best to be quicker and still pack up neatly. he'll try hard to please me and do what his teacher asks of him. that's part of his sensitive nature. i just hope that it doesn't add unneeded "pressure" on him and make him neurotic at the tender age of 5 ...