We went away on vacation the day after school let out, so I really didn't consider summer vacation to start until this week.
husband went back to work on Monday and I'm home with the kids. easy child has a few sports camps that he's signed up for, the first of which is next week, but difficult child has nothing planned, and he expects easy child to play with him. All. The. Time. I have tried to explain to difficult child a million ways from Sunday that this is easy child's summer vacation, too, and he does not want to spend every second of every day of it entertaining his older brother. difficult child doesn't care. He's "bored" and he wants easy child play with him. No amount of redirection seems to help. As usual, difficult child wants what he wants when he wants it and the feelings and needs of other people don't matter.
We're on day two of being home and he started already. easy child, who has spend a good part of the day willingly playing with his brother, wanted to "relax in [his] room" for a few minutes. difficult child wanted easy child to continue to play with him. Now, if difficult child would just give easy child a few minutes he would take a few minutes, relax, and then be willing to play. No. difficult child starts stomping his feet on the floor ("I'm not stomping. I'm marching!"), knocking incessantly on easy child's locked bedroom door, screaming that easy child is "a retard", shaking the handle to easy child's door in an attempt to force his way into easy child's room. This lasts five minutes, until he goes into his own room, slamming the door behind him. While this is going on I'm telling difficult child to stop bother easy child and just give him a few minutes. I don't want to touch him because the minute I do that escalates everything into a physical confrontation.
Just as I predicted, ten minutes later, difficult child knocks on easy child's door (again, but nicely this time) and asks if he wants to play Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, easy child says yes, and that is what they are doing right now.
This goes on every day. I can't relax and do anything because I'm always waiting for the next issue to pop up. I am never going to make it through the summer. I can't wait for the weeks that easy child has sports camps.
husband went back to work on Monday and I'm home with the kids. easy child has a few sports camps that he's signed up for, the first of which is next week, but difficult child has nothing planned, and he expects easy child to play with him. All. The. Time. I have tried to explain to difficult child a million ways from Sunday that this is easy child's summer vacation, too, and he does not want to spend every second of every day of it entertaining his older brother. difficult child doesn't care. He's "bored" and he wants easy child play with him. No amount of redirection seems to help. As usual, difficult child wants what he wants when he wants it and the feelings and needs of other people don't matter.
We're on day two of being home and he started already. easy child, who has spend a good part of the day willingly playing with his brother, wanted to "relax in [his] room" for a few minutes. difficult child wanted easy child to continue to play with him. Now, if difficult child would just give easy child a few minutes he would take a few minutes, relax, and then be willing to play. No. difficult child starts stomping his feet on the floor ("I'm not stomping. I'm marching!"), knocking incessantly on easy child's locked bedroom door, screaming that easy child is "a retard", shaking the handle to easy child's door in an attempt to force his way into easy child's room. This lasts five minutes, until he goes into his own room, slamming the door behind him. While this is going on I'm telling difficult child to stop bother easy child and just give him a few minutes. I don't want to touch him because the minute I do that escalates everything into a physical confrontation.
Just as I predicted, ten minutes later, difficult child knocks on easy child's door (again, but nicely this time) and asks if he wants to play Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, easy child says yes, and that is what they are doing right now.
This goes on every day. I can't relax and do anything because I'm always waiting for the next issue to pop up. I am never going to make it through the summer. I can't wait for the weeks that easy child has sports camps.