5 Days of No School

I've been out of. On November 14th, I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and it totally threw me off. I thought I scheduled the appointment for a day that Gianna didn't have school, but it turns out she was supposed to. I didn't send her because I didn't realize until it was too late. I wouldn't have been able to send her anyway, because no one would have been home to get her off of her bus.

I've missed appointments because I have been so thrown off with my days. I STILL need to call to set up a new therapist for AJ. I need to reschedule a ton of appointments. I need to reorganize my entire house. I need to figure out what to do with the Christmas tree this year. I need to continue to go through my clothes to put aside those that don't fit me any more. So much that needs to be done.

But first, I need to get through this Thanksgiving break. AJ came home from school today unhappy. I'm not sure why, he said nothing happened. I suspect he's upset that there's no school for the next 5 days. He has a love/hate relationship with school. His teacher is fantastic, he has friends, but he struggles with being overwhelmed. He starts his work and feels like he can't do it. It frustrates him. Mrs. R is awesome, and encourages him to take breaks when he needs to- go sit on the rug, get a drink of water, etc. Little things so that he can escape the work momentarily, then get right back on task. She tells me these breaks have been happening more and more as the school year goes on. It started off as once a day, but now it's more like once per subject she was telling me. I am concerned, but I have faith his teacher is doing all she can to help him. The school psychologist tells me they can't do another eval on him, but without that, requesting an IEP or 504 is pointless. We've been denied twice before because his "behavior doesn't affect his learning" while at school.

I keep saying it, but when we see a new therapist, I sure hope they can help more than his current one. I can't take this much longer. When he came home, he was upset and picked fights nonstop with Gianna. Snatching the tablet out of her hands, taking toys from her, pretending he was going to share the blanket with her then saying "NOT!" and laughing in her face. Gianna adores him, and loves to sit with him and play with him, but it breaks my heart to see him act so mean and bully her like this. I keep trying to tell him that one day, he's going to really regret it. It doesn't seem to phase him in the least.

I don't know if I mentioned it previously, but 2 months ago, we added Seroquel to his medications. We started at half a pill (12.5 mg) every day after school, and just bumped it up to a whole pill after school, and an extra half as needed for agitation and outbursts. I've not yet felt the need to give him that extra as needed, but have no qualms in doing so if I must. I have a feeling that I will need to at least once during this break.

Speaking of break, I am not going to enjoy this break if this behavior continues. I've decided that I'm going to start implementing chores as punishments. This will accomplish two things. One, my house will be clean pretty quickly, and two, it will keep the kids busy. With any luck, one or two additional things will come from it- One, my children will discover they actually like cleaning, so they'll do it willingly, more often. And/or two, they'll hate cleaning so much that they'll be extra kind to each other, and work extra hard to get along. Hey, I can dream, right?!





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Caught in yet another lie

I honestly can't take this any more. My sons lying is OUT OF CONTROL. I just caught him in yet another lie. After just having a massive lying incident the other week, I thought he'd be done. At least, done for a while. This totally cuts into the blog I wanted to write. I will have to save that for another day.


We have to register our dogs. Mine, and my SILs. They were going to sell their Nintendo 2DS or whatever it's called, so they had the funds to register theirs, but couldn't find it. It was supposed to be in the case, along with like 6 games. When they grabbed it, they noticed it felt lighter than it should have been. Open it up, and SURPRISE! The DS and 2 games are missing. I instantly accused AJ. Why? Because he has a history of stealing things. Naturally, I turned to the one with the history of it.

He denies knowing anything about it. He didn't even know it was there. So, it just can't be him. Then, since I accused him, my husband starts yelling at me. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO ACCUSE HIM? HE DOESN'T ALWAYS DO THINGS LIKE THIS, YOU KNOW. I'M TIRED OF YOU ALWAYS ACCUSING HIM. MAYBE THEY MISPLACED IT. DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT?!" To be honest, I briefly entertained that thought. But after a very brief consideration, I thought differently. Because he was upset about this, he was upset when our dog ran outside when SIL's husband opened the door. I grabbed her leash and followed her so that she could go to the bathroom if she needed to.

When I brought her back in, he was digging around in the couch to look for it. I decided to go upstairs and look around in the kids' room to see if it was in there. Hmm, what do you know, I found it in his underwear drawer. I came downstairs, directed my attention to my husband and said "And THIS is why I accuse him. Because 9 times out of 10, it IS him. I found this in one of his drawers.". I handed the system to my SIL so I could go back and continue to look for the other missing game. While I was going back upstairs, he kept insisting it wasn't him. Someone planted it there. It wasn't him. It was someone else. He didn't do it. Blah blah blah

Next thing I hear is this loud smack, a scream, and my SIL yelling at my husband for smacking AJ. All hell breaks loose. If it's one thing my husband and I hate is when people try to tell us how to raise our kids. Especially a childless family member. He HATES it. She's yelling at Anthony that she didn't care if AJ played on it. Just that he should have told her. Point of the punishment was because he stole it, then lied to us about having it.

Even after being confronted, he STILL lies about it. I asked him who would possibly set him up. He says "Gianna can reach the top drawer. She could have done it." Ehhhhhhhhhh ... at that point, I called him out, again. "I never stated I found it in your top drawer. I said I found it in ONE OF YOUR DRAWERS. So that there shows me, again, that YOU did it. Stop the lying. All you're doing is digging yourself further and further into this lie. STOP. Just stop it!!!"


I just don't know what to do any more. I can't take it. It's constantly lie after lie. If he continues doing this, he's going to end up getting into serious legal troubles as he gets older. I am at a loss. Punishments don't seem to work. Threatening to call the police doesn't matter. The last time I took him to the police station for stealing money from me, they said, right in front of him, that he was too young to be placed in a holding cell. He is too young for the "scared straight" program.

What would YOU do in this instance? I have NO problem taking things from him, but all of the kids share one room, so I can't take things without punishing them as well. He WILL be going to bed early tonight. He will be banned from ALL electronics for a minimum of a week. I'm debating on taking Trick Or Treating away from him. Or even not allowing him to participate in his classroom's Halloween party. What are some punishments you would dish out in this case?