TerryJ2
Well-Known Member
I knew this was going to happen. It was just a matter of when.
difficult child has been angry and on edge all wk. It culminated when he mouthed off to me when I warmed dinner for him tonight. I sent him to his room. He decided to blow off steam by throwing a baseball through the plate glass window.
He came downstairs crying. He was scared and angry and upset, and had a tiny cut on his finger. I wrapped a BandAid around his finger. Then we cleaned up the glass together. Sort of. He got angry and told me to leave. Five min. later he showed up in the kitchen and said he needed help.
It finally got cleaned up. I told him he would have to work very hard to pay us back for the window.
But he was still still angry and upset with-himself. He said he always breaks things when he's angry. He said he wanted to commit suicide. (Those exact words.) I said he couldn't do that because he had to eat dinner. (I was trying to keep it calm but I may have underplayed it a bit.)
He sassed me some more and I took away the wrestling men he was playing with. Oddly, instead of four that he had earned back this week, he had six.
He blew a gasket and said disrespectful things, but instead of sending him directly to his room, I gave him a plate of plain rice pasta, thinking his blood sugar might be low. I went outside for a moment, and when I came back in, he was sitting on the couch with-the plate in front of him, and his entire front was covered with-pasta. He had dumped it on himself. It looked like he had a blonde hairy chest and I burst out laughing. I asked him why he did it and he just stared into space.
I decided to walk around outside to give him some space. I came back in and smelled smoke.
He told me he lit a match in the DR. I told him that was odd because the smell was in the kitchen hall. He said he lit it and walked through the kitchen and put it out in the DR.
I again told him it was odd that the smell wasn't in there. I walked around until I found the most pungent area, and in a very calm voice, said, "What did you light in here? Something was burning."
As an afterthought, he said, "Oh, yeah, I burned this." And he picked up a charred pencil from the back of the family room behind the couch near the porch door. I told him that he knew better than to play with-matches and he was grounded. He insisted we'd never told him that he wasn't supposed to play with-matches.
Now's he's really angry again and of course, everything is my fault. He hates our family and wants to leave. I told him to supply me with-an address and we'd see what we could do. He said he wants to go live with-R, his bmom. I told him he would have to go into foster care for a year and then maybe R could have him.
Now he's throwing something in his room and I don't even want to know what it is.
I don't know whether to assume this is just difficult child on a bad day or whether I should call Dr. Riley.
Oh, husband and I were supposed to go to a Meet the Teacher Night at school (for next yr) but I called husband and asked him to go with-o me. It wasn't fair for easy child to have to watch difficult child 2 nights in a row, especially when he brought her to tears last night.
difficult child is calming down a bit, but wants to play with-a friend tomorrow after school and is coming up with-ideas to earn the privilege. His friend keeps calling and I told difficult child to give me space. He yelled, "I KNOW you need to calm down and think but I need to know NOW. I'll do ANYTHING!"
I just shut and locked my ofc door. We both need space.
difficult child has been angry and on edge all wk. It culminated when he mouthed off to me when I warmed dinner for him tonight. I sent him to his room. He decided to blow off steam by throwing a baseball through the plate glass window.
He came downstairs crying. He was scared and angry and upset, and had a tiny cut on his finger. I wrapped a BandAid around his finger. Then we cleaned up the glass together. Sort of. He got angry and told me to leave. Five min. later he showed up in the kitchen and said he needed help.
It finally got cleaned up. I told him he would have to work very hard to pay us back for the window.
But he was still still angry and upset with-himself. He said he always breaks things when he's angry. He said he wanted to commit suicide. (Those exact words.) I said he couldn't do that because he had to eat dinner. (I was trying to keep it calm but I may have underplayed it a bit.)
He sassed me some more and I took away the wrestling men he was playing with. Oddly, instead of four that he had earned back this week, he had six.
He blew a gasket and said disrespectful things, but instead of sending him directly to his room, I gave him a plate of plain rice pasta, thinking his blood sugar might be low. I went outside for a moment, and when I came back in, he was sitting on the couch with-the plate in front of him, and his entire front was covered with-pasta. He had dumped it on himself. It looked like he had a blonde hairy chest and I burst out laughing. I asked him why he did it and he just stared into space.
I decided to walk around outside to give him some space. I came back in and smelled smoke.
He told me he lit a match in the DR. I told him that was odd because the smell was in the kitchen hall. He said he lit it and walked through the kitchen and put it out in the DR.
I again told him it was odd that the smell wasn't in there. I walked around until I found the most pungent area, and in a very calm voice, said, "What did you light in here? Something was burning."
As an afterthought, he said, "Oh, yeah, I burned this." And he picked up a charred pencil from the back of the family room behind the couch near the porch door. I told him that he knew better than to play with-matches and he was grounded. He insisted we'd never told him that he wasn't supposed to play with-matches.
Now's he's really angry again and of course, everything is my fault. He hates our family and wants to leave. I told him to supply me with-an address and we'd see what we could do. He said he wants to go live with-R, his bmom. I told him he would have to go into foster care for a year and then maybe R could have him.
Now he's throwing something in his room and I don't even want to know what it is.
I don't know whether to assume this is just difficult child on a bad day or whether I should call Dr. Riley.
Oh, husband and I were supposed to go to a Meet the Teacher Night at school (for next yr) but I called husband and asked him to go with-o me. It wasn't fair for easy child to have to watch difficult child 2 nights in a row, especially when he brought her to tears last night.
difficult child is calming down a bit, but wants to play with-a friend tomorrow after school and is coming up with-ideas to earn the privilege. His friend keeps calling and I told difficult child to give me space. He yelled, "I KNOW you need to calm down and think but I need to know NOW. I'll do ANYTHING!"
I just shut and locked my ofc door. We both need space.
) and he took me through a list of things that happened to lead up to the explosion, and concluded that it didn't really match bipolar. It clearly showed that difficult child has some messed-up wiring and that he is delayed. He said we just have to change all the rules for him (shades of The Explosive Child) and if a book or therapist suggests grounding him for a wk, we can only ground him for 2 days because he just doesn't "Get it." The whole thing is an experiment and we have to stay on top of it. 
