Hanging-On
New Member
Hey, how would you guys see this and handle it.
My difficult child totally ignores what I say, and frequently laughs at me when I'm telling them what to do or not do. Plus he eggs me on. (IE: don't touch the wall with your dirty hands, and he'll stand there touching it and say, "touch", "touch".) Part of me (after I walk away, and I'm not in "the Moment") wonders if it's part of his condition (the hospital doctors observed that difficult child laughs at everything - so it's not just "me" taking it personally), or he is REALLY laughing at me and totally disrespecting me. I'd say it may be 50-50. The hard thing is to know when he does it on purpose. Ignoring me, disrespecting me, and laughing at me just really pushes my buttons. I don't know how to make difficult child take me seriously. And to add to this, difficult child gets easy child going to. So now I have both of them doing it. I know easy child is just copying difficult child, which is normal, but it still infuriates me.
I wish I could be laid back, easy going, with a great sense of humor, becuase they're ALWAYS taking me as a joke I find that I'm such a inflexible authoritarian drill sergeant....I hate that.
Am I creating this circle? Could it be that the more I "demand" their respect and attention, the more I'm becoming a joke in their eyes? What totally stinks is that there is too much work to do on the homestead, for them to not take me seriously. I'm wasting to much time trying to get them to comply. I've thought about letting them win all these situations, and just do their chores myself, and clean up what ever they messed up while I was busy doing chores......BUT then I wouldn't be teaching them anything and more importantly, doing them a great disservice. So here's my dilema....
My difficult child totally ignores what I say, and frequently laughs at me when I'm telling them what to do or not do. Plus he eggs me on. (IE: don't touch the wall with your dirty hands, and he'll stand there touching it and say, "touch", "touch".) Part of me (after I walk away, and I'm not in "the Moment") wonders if it's part of his condition (the hospital doctors observed that difficult child laughs at everything - so it's not just "me" taking it personally), or he is REALLY laughing at me and totally disrespecting me. I'd say it may be 50-50. The hard thing is to know when he does it on purpose. Ignoring me, disrespecting me, and laughing at me just really pushes my buttons. I don't know how to make difficult child take me seriously. And to add to this, difficult child gets easy child going to. So now I have both of them doing it. I know easy child is just copying difficult child, which is normal, but it still infuriates me.
I wish I could be laid back, easy going, with a great sense of humor, becuase they're ALWAYS taking me as a joke I find that I'm such a inflexible authoritarian drill sergeant....I hate that.
Am I creating this circle? Could it be that the more I "demand" their respect and attention, the more I'm becoming a joke in their eyes? What totally stinks is that there is too much work to do on the homestead, for them to not take me seriously. I'm wasting to much time trying to get them to comply. I've thought about letting them win all these situations, and just do their chores myself, and clean up what ever they messed up while I was busy doing chores......BUT then I wouldn't be teaching them anything and more importantly, doing them a great disservice. So here's my dilema....