Anger...OH BOY!

No school! Yay! No school! I can sleep in.  But wait.  UGH! No SCHOOL. That means no routine. Oh well.  I decide to sleep some more anyway.  At least sleeping in is a plus! 

I roll out of bed after 8.  I go upstairs and immediately am assaulted by kids who refuse to listen.  Arguing.  Rationalizing.  Heated discussion. 

Alex gets grounded. Sigh. GREAT start to my day!

A little while later. I get a phone call from the drama club instructor concerning Alex.  Great. Time for a discussion.  I finish cooking my eggs before going downstairs to talk with him.  I make sure I’m calm because I’ve learned that being upset when I have a discussion with anyone is not productive.

He ends up in tears. Being a teenager is rough.  And being a teenager with ADHD is even rougher.  He begs me…pleads with me to give him “anger management”. 

So, I start searching online. And I find a site that almostperfectly matches the things that I have said and always say to my kids when they are angry. 

We sit and read the site and talk about it.  He is forcing himself to be so calm he almost robot like.  He’s afraid to show any emotions at all.  He’s afraid of allowing himself to lose control again.  

It's a FAKE day off!!

It’s Thursday and the kids are off from school today. Parent teacher conferences. It’s a “day off”, but not really.

I’m constantly reminding them to do what they need to do.  Redirect. Redirect. Redirect. Sigh. 

Put away your clothes.

Put the dishes away.

Go take your meds.

Did you eat breakfast?

Finish your chores.

No, you may not have video game time until you finish your chores.

Do your homework.

Focus. Get your work done.

Clean your room. 

Who’s socks are these?

The “not me” ghost is FIRED!

Who put a hole in this chair?

Well, SOMEONE did it.

Pick up those blankets and pillows.

Put the toys away…where they go.

Turn off the light when you’re not in your room.

What are you DOING? Finish your job.

And on…and on…and on. It’s exhausting.  And makes me hate days off from school.  I SHOULD be enjoying my time with my children. We should be having fun. If they would just GET UP and do what needs to be done they would be left with the majority of the day to do whatever their hearts desired.  But THAT would be too easy.

Eventually everything is complete.  Eventually I can relax…at like 7pm. And then I eat a brownie.  Aaagh!  I was trying to be good, but that motivation is gone at the moment.

8pm is bedtime. And it takes forever to get them to bed.  9:15 I turn out the lights with a little girl trying to fall asleep next to me. Sigh! Sleep...

4:55am my alarm goes off.  I’m SO thankful for school today! 

I’m not exaggerating…not even a little bit. 

The cutting board

My head is throbbing again. I convince my little girl that I can watch a show on Netflix for a little while so I can fold some laundry. I STRONGLY dislike folding laundry...watching a show makes it bearable.  That’s kind of like resting…I think.  Not really. But I need to be productive somehow. And the laundry really needs to be folded.  The girls have 3 loads that need to be done.  There are two loads of towels and I don’t even know how many more.  It multiplies, I swear! Like Gremlins!!!

(They're harmless...right...)

So I fold. And watch. And fold some more. 

The boys come home from school.  Alex must really want something…like video game time…because he starts on his chores without being asked or reminded.  WOW!!  This RARELY happens! I mean, almost NEVER! He needs constant reminders to get most anything done at home.

Why is it that kids break EVERYTHING? I mean really.  Is it THAT hard to do simple tasks without causing things to be destroyed? Since we've moved here they've successfully broken a light, two toilet seats...yeah 2, the mini blinds in the bathroom, the sleds...and more. 

And then I hear the clattering of wood.  “What happened?” I ask.  No reply.  “What happened, Alex?” Again no reply. “Did something break?” I ask. He hesitantly replies, “Yes.”

“What was it?”

He walks to the edge of the living room holding a wooden cutting board that’s now it three pieces.  

“Alex! That’s not ours! That’s Aunt Juli’s!!”

“It is? Oh crap!”

“You’ll have to show it to Aunt Juli when she gets home.  You’ll also have to find out how much it cost so that you can work to earn money to replace it.” There's a sneaky suspicion in my head that Alex might just have been twirling that cutting board on his finger...just maybe...

I continue folding and watching. 

 Alex was stressing, unbeknownst to us.  He worried that Aunt Juli was going to be mad.  I mean really…she’s SO MEAN! NOT! He worried that he was going to be in trouble.  And I had forgotten ALL about it. Let’s be honest, my head hurt, so I didn’t care much. Woops!

When Aunt Juli came home and he showed her the cutting board she was very easy going about it, as she usually is. “It’s not a big deal.  Don’t worry about it,” she said.

Alex, feeling as though he had needlessly worried, got mad, “MOM! See!  SHE DIDN’T EVEN GET MAD! It wasn’t a big deal, Mom!”

“But next time it might be, so be careful that you don’t break things,” Juli replied. 

Oh, having kids is so fun! And on occasion...when the item they break is worth more...kids are expensive.