In order to protect my children's privacy I will not refer to them by name. My oldest will be known (on here at least) as Toodleumpkins and the youngest as Bumperkins.
I don't know if anyone will ever read this but I decided I needed an outlet and a sanity keeper and maybe writing down the events of my days will help me to get it out and get over it. So this is the beginning of my soap opera saga ODD mom!
Today began as most of our days do. I'm up at 5:30, dressed for work, take our dog Luna (an adorable 1 yr old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) for her morning constitutional, back home to TRY to get the boys up for school. When I finally go and pull the covers off they reluctantly get up and grudgingly get dressed for school.
Their school requires a "uniform" that is really just a rigid dress code. Choice of black, blue, or khaki color pants in a dockers style, no more than 4 pockets, brown or black belt, blue, black, gold, or white polo type shirt that must be tucked in, white, black, or brown socks, and black shoes. And none can have any type of logo, picture, or brand marking that can be seen. Very, very stupid. I am told that this was adopted for a variety of reasons which include: 1) With all the children dressed alike it is easy to see if someone who doesn't belong is there - my answer to that is Huh? The code is so liberal and anyone could go to the local Wally World and for less than $20 bucks attire themselves to fit right in. 2) This way there is less competition of who has better clothing - once again, Huh? There are still kids who have the $100 dollar shoes and department store clothes vs the kids with the $5 Shoe Shoe shoes and Maxway clothes. 3) The kids behave better when everyone looks the same - again, Huh? Not that I have seen - there is still bullying misbehavior all over the place. I prefer a uniform that is actually a uniform or free choice with "proper attire" type code. But then I don't get to make the rules on this!
Once dressed the first of the days many drama's occurs. I am at work by 7 am (30 mins away) so we go next door to my moms every school day for breakfast and the kids to catch the bus. Neither child has been behaving or, in one childs case, doing their school work as required so the "no toys at grandma's" rule is being enforced. Regardless, every single day their is a meltdown because they are reminded of the rule or try to smuggle something and it is caught. Today both of them tried it. Toodleumpkins has been caught almost every day with some toy or another and today it was a mini tabletop hockey set. Bumperkins had a mighty bean. Toodleumpkins was trying to hide his, Bumperkins had his out in the open. Toodleumpkins had a meltdown crying, screaming, fit when I took his away and threw it in the trash - as he was told would happen the next time he ignored the rule. Bumperkins was not thrown away as he is not a habitual offender - his was just taken away for a week. Which is kinda sad as he just got it back this morning! Oh, BTW, did I mention that Toodleumpkins toy had been taken away earlier this week for the same thing and he went into my room, without permission, and sneaked it out this morning?
Today they did not have to ride the bus, I took a few hours off work in order to take them, and their Science Projects, to school. Their Science Projects....that was fun...do you hear the sarcasm in my voice on that one? I did not think they would be ready on time and I refused to do the work for them. Well, I will be honest. I did help Bumperkins as this is the first year he had to do one. But my help was only in showing him how to do it and answering questions - he still had to do the experiment, notes, research, typing, and assembling on his own. Once Toodleumpins realized that I would not step in and do his for him he finally began top pull it together. It is not well done, but it is done. And their were only about 10 screaming fits during the process.
I will be taking Toodleumpkins to his Psych appt this afternoon. His Psych is 1.5 hours away. I live in a very small rural town and although we do have Psychs here none of them feel qualified to help him. I feel fortunate that I only have to drive 3 hrs round trip because the next area that has a Psych qualifed to work with him would be a 4 hour round trip! This appt is just for med maintenance, the psychologist appt is next Tues. Hopefully when I go to the school to pick him up he will actually be in class and not in the SBMR room or the Vice Principles office as is so often the case.
It's only noon and I feel like I've already run a marathon this morning. But my days always have 3 constants - there will be a rage/screaming episode in the morning, another after school, and at least one more before bed. I am still researching, looking, and trying everything I can to try to help this child. He can have such a loving, helpful personality - I just wish it had more opportunities to shine.
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