G'day, Shelly. I'm glad you're having a relaxing day. For us, Monday was just another first day of the week, a day for work. There was a Monday thread earlier, but the Morning thread always seems to finish long before I can really converse! Either I start it off just as we head to dinner with mother in law (which we do each night) or I post on the tail end after we get home from dinner. It's a three hour window for us which, in our summer with Daylight Saving, tends to happen even later, while we're sleeping.
With difficult child's anxiety, often the best 'cure' is for him to experience some anxiety nd survive it without meltdown, especially if he can contribute to a solution. It is all a cumulative learning experience.
We were talking to mother in law about it last night. I went down to cook at 6.30 pm. The arrangement with difficult child 3 is, husband lets im know when he is home form work. husband then takes his evening medications, puts his bag away and then heads down to mother in law's hopefully with difficult child 3 either with him, or following within minutes. Last night difficult child 3 said he would come down in his own time. mother in law commented a bit sourly that difficult child 3 is talking to us like he's the adult; husband tried to explain that that is EXACTLY right, because the only way difficult child 3 seems able to learn any social skills, is to model his behaviour on ours. And he uses phrases we do, behaviour we do. We can't have difficult child 3 learn how to behave like a subservient child (which is what mother in law wants and tries to impose when she thinks we're not looking). As mother in law gets older and more frail, I think the more desperate she feels to leave some sort of legacy of behaviour improvement in difficult child 3. She doesn't realise that she's rocking the boat, not stabilising it. Often mother in law's teasing of difficult child 3 has made him increasingly reluctant to come down to dinner on time, which only makes mother in law crankier and more inclined to hassle him.
To his credit, difficult child 3 is beginning to realise that mother in law means well and has her own difficult child issues, which need to be tolerated gently. He turned up just as I had served up dinner (I left his in the pot so he could serve himself) and was thankfully not late.
Today (Tuesday) there is a chance we (Australia) might find out if we have a government or not. It's been 17 days since our Federal election and the vote is split between the two major parties. Neither side has enough seats to form government in their own right, and four Independents are able to hold the country to ransom as they let each party bid for their support. It's a worry when what your government can or cannot do, is at the whim of just four people (sometimes less). One party needs all four to support, in order to win. The other party could get by with one less. WHichever party wins, the leader of that party will become the new Prime Minister. And whoever it is will have a horrible job, with such a tight margin. Or no margin.
Life is certainly interesting. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Marg
