The most puzzling thing your difficult child ever did

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I was thinking about my daughter who abused drugs and see some really strange behavior way before she started that. This is probably the strangest thing she ever did, but it tells you where she's coming from.
Daughter was always very shy (still is) and at the same time has always wanted to have friends (she still does and still struggles due to shyness). When she was in maybe sixth grade she told everyone at her school that her dad worked for a candy factory and that she could get any candy they wanted. Then she would ask me for money to buy them candy. When I didn't do it, she'd go to the corner store with her friend and shoplift candy to give to her friends. She never got caught.
She told me about the shoplifting way later. I didn't know about it at the time, but I knew she'd lied about what her father did and she wouldn't give me a straight answer when I asked her why she said that. She'd mumble something like, "I'm a geek." What strange things or big red flags did you see before you knew there was a bigger problem?
 

tammyjh

New Member
Oh wow...great question and I don't know if I can pin point any one thing. I always knew my difficult child would have a harder time with certain things because of her seizures and brain surgery....I just had the misguided idea that her brain would compensate much better than it has. I would have to say that when she was quite young...probably 2, she started having tantrums that were very intense. But as she was my first, I just thought it was part of the "terrible twos" that everyone talks about. I also babysat and when she would see the mom and her daughter drive in, she would be so excited and happy but when they would walk through the door, she would run to her room...screaming and upset only to walk out a couple minutes later and say "hello xxx" as if nothing happened. There are lots of strange things that should have been glaringly obvious to me that I didn't pick up on at the time and I'm sure we miss things that she does now. We live with her so her "norm" becomes our "norm" to an extent as well. When we were in an IEP meeting last year, husband told the team that there are a lot of things they wouldn't get unless they were up on "Abbyology" and I thought the one team member was going to spit his drink on the table:laughing:
 

daralex

Clinging onto my sanity
For me it was understanding that difficult child didn't understand. Very socially awkward! When she was younger she never "got" jokes. I would say something like - hang on - and she would say - hang on to what! I think because she doesn't get it most of the time she pretends to, so that she doesn't seem as awkward as she actually is. I cannot begin to explain the strange things that she has done or come out of her mouth. Once when asking her what she wanted to drink off the menu she kept yelling hush puppies - no dear, you are looking for a slush puppy not a hush puppy! Sometimes it's cute and other times it's just weird (like the hoarding thumbtacks thing) Sometimes it's just downright heartbreaking!
-dara
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
There are just too many, mostly because she does not engage brain before mouth goes into action, but one of the best was when she came home from school (sophomore year) and announced that she had had an "Asian" day today. To this day, I don't know what that is, nor if it's good or bad.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
We had neighbor kids once who were very mean to their lil dog. Nichole was playing in her sandbox on the patio one day and heard the oldest boy being mean to the dog. Next thing I know I find my 3 yr old, who is the size of a 1 yr old, hands on hips and red faced giving this 6 ft tall hs boy a major piece of her mind. Nichole is furious and really letting the kid have it. And I think uh oh! So I go racing outside. HS boy is standing there taking it all in, amused. When she was done he told her that she was right. Funny thing is he was never mean to the dog again, and he always treated Nichole special after that.

But the moment my tiny 3 yr old was fearlessly taking on a hs boy, I knew something was up, even if I had no clue as to what it was.:tongue:
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
I already knew something was up with difficult child 1, but to this day, I still can not even comprehend this one...
He was sitting in the recliner. I smelled something burning. He watched as husband, easy child 1, and I pulled the house apart trying to find the source. An hour later, he said "I was burning some matches in easy child's room, maybe that's what you smell."
Turns out that's *kinda* what we smelled. He wasn't burning matches, he'd held a lighter to PCs bed frame and the bed frame was smoldering.
WHY would you do that? And then WHY would you sit and watch us search for the source, knowing full well what the smell was, and not say "I know what it is and the house MIGHT burn down"?
And the kicker? He didn't "get" why he "got" in trouble for that one.
I'll stop thinking about it now. Still makes my blood boil.
 

Hopeless

....Hopeful Now
Mine is very strong willed. At the age of 5, driving her to school everyday was a battle during the winter months. She hates the feeling of socks and I would beg, plead, yell the entire way to school to put the socks on. One day, with about 6 inches of snow on the ground, I was so tired of the same routine every morning over socks, I rolled down the window and threw them out and said "don't wear socks". Of course, when husband and I went to the parent teacher conference, the teacher said something like "do you need help with clothing" All I could do was laugh and try and explain that my difficult child didn't like the way the socks feel.
 

GinAndTonic

New Member
At age three, yelling "This is up!" (while pointing down), "And this is down!" (while pointing up). I think that was one of our first signs that there was something unusual about our son. (I cracked up, once I was out of the room.)
 
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