Not sure how to approach this one...

This was one of those particularly horrible what-in-the-world-do-we-do-with-this-crazy-kid kind of days. Leah, for some unknown reason, was completely beyond anyone's control today. It was more than just a misbehaving, let's put her in time out kind of events. One minute she was screaming and thrashing, dumping water, knocking food off the table, slamming Hannah's fingers in the door, then in an instant she would be cheerful, happy, silly, spinning around and trying to play games with Hannah. When she gets like this, we used to put her in the back of the van, in a seatbelt of course, and drive around. Well, she figured out how to unbuckle her seatbelt. She got out of her seat and started attacking Hannah (that means screaming in her face, pulling hair, and hitting. And throwing things at her.) We pulled over and she started attacking Brian. What are we supposed to do at this point? She is way beyond reason, and doesn't respond to an 'if-then' consequense-'if you sit in your chair, you can have an M and M.' It doesn't matter what we say - it's like she doesn't know we are talking. I'm sure things will improve when school starts, because they always do, but how are we supposed to cope until then? What may be the hardest part is how it affects Hannah. She cries out of fear, her lower lip quivers, she starts begging for her softie and her eyes get big and wide and so vulnerable. It's so hard to not be able to protect her all the time or keep ger from the raging Leah.

Sorry about the downer, but hey, this is my life right now! Maybe tomorrow will be a better day...I'm learning that attitude and perspective are so important.

Comments

Brian said…
We've had some really rough days lately, but that one had to be on the top of the list in recent memory.

I think the hardest part for me wasn't even the extreme ups and downs of Leah, though of course they were hard. For me, it was hardest that I just felt that I had absolutely nothing in my bag of tricks/arsenal to pull out to try to sabotage Leah's out of control antics.

Also, I really just in an all around sort of way wasn't at the top of my game, or anywhere near it. So, to have all that thrown at us at that time was seriously bad timing. When however, do kids ever check in with their parents to see if they can schedule some time in advance to behave like a serious monster?
August 14, 2008 at 6:44 PM
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