Why difficult children should not help at Yard Sales

[trinityroyal]

This weekend, we had the Mother of All Yard Sales at the Trinity household. Enough stuff sold to fill 2 other houses, and the truck packed up with all of the leftovers, ready to be dropped at the Goodwill first thing tomorrow morning.

difficult child has been an incredible help for the last few weeks, helping husband to haul stuff from the backyard and basement, sorting, packing, labelling and organizing.

Yesterday and today, on the actual sale days, difficult child lost his ever lovin' mind. He just WOULD. NOT. SHUT. UP.

"Whew! We finally got rid of that!"
"You want to buy THAT!? It's got a broken hinge and the lining is ripped"
" Mom? How come you said $20 for that? Last time someone asked, you said $10"
" This? This was my favourite toy. In fact, I don't think we should sell it. Dad, can I keep this?"

And on and on and on. By yesterday afternoon, I wanted to tape difficult child's mouth shut, and by this morning I wanted to tie him to a chair.

At one point, I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea. Heard a noise and looked up to find difficult child showing a woman through the house!!!!


I saw the manic behaviour starting up yesterday morning. HAd a long talk with husband about how a yard sale is probably not the best environment for difficult child to maintain control over himself.

Finally, at about 4:00 pm, husband took difficult child back to the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). That left me alone with the yard and the sale, but it was easier trying to corral all the people than it was trying to rein in one squirrelly difficult child.

Gosh, I'm glad that's over.

 

[klmno]

LOL!! Yep, if he's anything like my son, I'd say the hypomania set in around clean-up/prep time and it just kept going up from there. I can see my son doing this, and he's only 13yo!

 

[Wiped Out]

Sounds just like my difficult child and he's only 11 and he keeps begging us to have a garage sale! He wants 1/2 the profits!

 

[4sumrzn]

Oh my....garage sales alone are tough! Throw a difficult child in the mix.....I'll pass. I know exactly how it would go.....it wouldn't! She would cry over everything that was leaving the house & try to give away the things that need to stay. I am beter off not trying to make some extra $ and giving it away.

 

[Hound dog]

Yep. Had one too. Both the PITA difficult child and the yard sale.

Next year I will definately fine somewhere else for Travis to be during our yard sale. This year he came very close to being killed by both his sisters and me.

Of course then we had 4 yr old Darrin trying to sell his Daddy's 100.00 RC car to a little boy for 10 dollars.

 

[trinityroyal]

Of course then we had 4 yr old Darrin trying to sell his Daddy's 100.00 RC car to a little boy for 10 dollars.

difficult child actually DID sell his Ukranian heirloom shirt, with all of the hand stitching and beadwork for $2
(husband decided to let difficult child make his own deal. Who am I to interfere?)


Lisa, maybe you and I can ship our difficult children off together somewhere when we have our yard sales next summer.

 

[Star*]

(pictures Trinity yelling at a yard saler NO THAT ROPE? NOT FOR SALE as she ties squirrely difficult child to the chair)

You know as sweet as it was for difficult child to be that BIG help - didn't it make you feel sad for him when it all started to come unglued?

That's the part of this disorder that makes me so blasted frustrated. They do SO good on some things - so good that you brag to your friends on just HOW good they did. You get that sense of "Maybe" and you tuck the memory of good behavior back in your mind for a rainy, some-day, bad day but you never get to bank it long - ever!

We did a yard sale 3 years ago - Dude was a huge help setting up. When it came time for the sale? He is a natural born salesman and was very good at it all. He got paid and was happy. When it was time to clean up? DUDddddddeeeeeee????? DUuuuuuuuuuuuuude (i could have heard my own voice for about 1.4 miles and no Dude.) lol

I am so glad you had the happy time you did - and BE SURE to get a receipt for taxes at the Good will.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

Haven't done a garage sale that I was responsible for in years. Nope can't make me.

beth

 

[trinityroyal]

You know as sweet as it was for difficult child to be that BIG help - didn't it make you feel sad for him when it all started to come unglued?

Star, you've summed it up perfectly.
difficult child has been a huge help all summer. As part of his Residential Treatment Center (RTC) job-skills training, he has been doing a lot of our yard work, in addition to helping with the garage sale.

He's been doing so well...I think husband got his hopes up that this new combination of medications was the cure for whatever ails difficult child. I was a little more skeptical, but hopeful about the progress I was seeing.

And then to watch ALL of his progress disappear right before my eyes as the day wore on, it was just heartbreaking. Although, it did have some entertainment value. At one point, difficult child wanted to stand in the middle of the street (the VERY BUSY street that runs right past our house), holding a Yard Sale sign and doing a little dance, in the hopes that it would attract attention.

He even demonstrated the little dance he was going to do. Ooooh, how I WISHED for a film crew right at that moment...it was so precious. My 6 ft 3 boy, all arms and legs, doing a gangly little wiggly dance in the middle of the yard, while customers stared, open-mouthed...

I explained that, while yes, he would attract attention, it was not the sort of attention he wanted. That it might involve the police thinking he was causing another disturbance, and that in turn might lead to more trouble for him.

If I EVER do that again, I think difficult child will be staying at the Residential Treatment Center (RTC) for the day.

As for the Goodwill tax receipt, I only wish I could. Up here, they don't give tax receipts for charitable donations of things, only for money. However, I have my garage floor back and all is well

Of course, now that I have an empty garage, I can start clearing out the basement. I have a place to put the stuff!

 

[Star*]

Of course, now that I have an empty garage, I can start clearing out the basement. I have a place to put the stuff!

OH DEAR were we separated at BIRTH????? SNORT..........

DF is a packrat and could be considered a clean horder. I am a packrat with EXCEPTIONAL organizational skills.....

I probably have twice as much junk but MINE is organized!

I have filled a shed with yardsale stuff I should probably haul to the flea market and sell at $1.00 ea. I would still come home rich.

Not a bad idea - where do I find a kid to help me? lol

 

[trinityroyal]

where do I find a kid to help me? lol

Well, that depends...
If you need one to wave a placard and dance to draw customers in, and then talk them to death to scare them away again, you can borrow mine.

Otherwise...I'm not really sure