Ticked

My son has a tic. It started out around age 5 with some heavy blinking. Then it became throat clearing. Then it switched to his fingers and now it's back around the nose and mouth. It comes and goes, usually based on stress and it's also much more common during fall and winter (probably coinciding with school - stress - and the fact that waking is far harder for him when it's still dark outside).

It has reared its ugly head once again. This time it's the mouth, nose and eyebrows. He can control it if he wants to, but it's uncomfortable. Saying something doesn't make it better - it just makes him feel stupid and try to hide his face. Trying to get him to relax doesn't help - he knows what we're doing. I said something about it this evening as I was putting him to bed. We were cuddling and I could feel his face tic-ing against my arm. So he pulled the covers over his head so I wouldn't see.

I guess I'll have to shut up and back off. Funny how half of parenthood seems to be "shut up and back off." The other half is sitting around, having backed off, wondering if you should've hovered more. One way or the other, I'm probably doing something wrong. Hopefully I'm doing other things right.