Autism, Aspergers, Rob Gorski,Special Needs Parenting, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Fibromyalgia,

Category Archive: Tantrums

Dec 28 2012

Hello tantrum its been awhile

Gavin is currently having a tantrum.  It’s a pretty big one if I’m being honest.  He invaded Lizze’s personal space once again and I caught him red handed.

I told him he would be having oatmeal for dinner as a consequence.  He lost it.  He’s pissed off at me because I took away his choice for dinner and gave him the default….

I had received some comments that oatmeal wasn’t severe enough. 

You have to keep in mind that while it doesn’t seem like a big deal to you,  it’s a huge deal to Gavin because I’m taking away control. 

Anyways, the boys were once again terrorized and I’m now counting the minutes until he moves back to his grandparents, as bad as that sounds. 
I’m done……..

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/12/28/hello-tantrum-its-been-awhile/

Dec 08 2012

Return of the Tantrum

Gavin has been home less than 24 hours and has already had a massive tantrum.

I’m watching all three boys while Lizze is at a family function.  This is really important to her because she needs to spend time with some of her family while she can.

Anyway, here’s what happened.

Gavin and Emmett were playing with a slinky on the steps.

While they were playing, the slinky was dropped over the side of the steps and tangled up in the cord for the Christmas tree.

Let me just say that I hate the slinky.

However, putting my personal disdain for the slinky aside, I fixed it for them once again. I simply asked how the slinky got tangled in the tree..

I explained that no one was in trouble, I just wanted to show them how to use the slinky so that doesn’t happen again. That was all I said. Part of me was simply curious as to how the heck this got so completely tangled in the tree.

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Gavin began dancing around saying he couldn’t remember.  I told him to calm down because no one was in trouble. He just escalated and swore that it wasn’t him.

I sent him to his room in order to get him away from his brothers.

I went up to speak with him about what had happened. He claimed that he couldn’t remember who had launched the slinky into the tree. I told him that I don’t understand how he could not remember that?  After a few minutes of tripping over his words and freaking out, he admitted to being the responsible party.

He said he lied cause he didn’t want to get in trouble.

I reminded him that he wouldn’t have been in trouble and I had already told him that quite a few times.

He was however, in trouble now because he lied to me.  We have to be able to trust him and lying can’t be tolerated. As a result, he lost his choice for what he could have for lunch and instead received the default meal, plain oatmeal.

The tantrum that followed was massive and has disrupted things once again.

On the positive side of things, it was rather short lived. I suppose, I could have not picked this battle but I did.  I didn’t make him lie. In fact, I gave him every chance to be honest without getting into trouble.

I don’t miss this at all.  :-(

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/12/08/return-of-the-tantrum/

Oct 16 2012

I evicted my son tonight :-(

Today is a day that I wish I could forget but I know I never will.  How many times can you lose the same person? That’s the question I have been asking myself over and over today. It’s weird,  I don’t know if I was expecting to hear the answer or maybe I thought, on some subconscious level that it would make me feel better.

You all know how things have been going with Gavin.  Not good. 

However, today at OT,  Gavin was talking to his therapist and began bragging about how he enjoys torturing one of his classmates.  That was his word, not mine. 

The way he said it was cold and caused the dad sitting across from me to gasp.

The therapist asked Gavin what he meant.  Gavin said that he likes to give this person (I’m not using their name) the pink calculator because it makes them upset. The therapist was like, why would you want to do that?

Gavin replied,  because it’s fun.

After therapy,  Lizze and I were asking him about what he had said.  We wanted to know what he was talking about because until I heard him say that, I knew nothing like that was going on. 

He started to deny and back peddle but couldn’t keep his lies straight.  Yes,  they were lies. 

We couldn’t get a straight answer out of him but the conversation was calm and not a problem.. 

At one point, Elliott looked at Gavin and told him that what he was doing to this other kid at school made him a bully and that wasn’t nice.

On the way home we stopped to pick up a pizza because we had just received some very concerning information about Emmett and I couldn’t focus on cooking.  I just didn’t have the energy left. 

Lizze stepped out of the car to get our dinner.

While she was gone,  I was still talking with Gavin.  I asked Gavin how he knew this person was upset by the pink calculator? Something about what he was saying did the add up.

Out of nowhere, he ripped his hat off his head and screaming at me, threw it as hard as he could.  I looked at him and told him that he had just lost his choice for dinner tonight.  He was going to have oatmeal instead of pizza. 

I shouldn’t have issued that consequence while he was still in the van, that was totally my fault.

I just sorta reacted. 

Gavin lost it and I mean lost it. 

Elliott was sobbing and trying to get away from him.  Emmett buried his face in his hands and tucked his legs up.

Lizze was walking back to the car and could hear the screaming. 

I made Gavin get out of the van and move to the front seat.  Lizze sat in the back and comforted the boys. I looked at Gavin and told him that if he screams again or tried to damage the van again,  he would have oatmeal for the rest of the week. 

Looked me straight in the eye and screamed as loud as he could and began kicking the dash and slamming backwards into the seat, trying to break it. 

Elliott and Emmett are both freaking out, Lizze has tears streaming down her face and I was done. 

I put my hand carefully, over his mouth. 

He could breath just fine but it muffled the screaming.  Once we got home and Lizze and the boys ran to the house, I removed my hand. He just kept screaming and screaming and he was trying to break things in the van.

Once the boys and Lizze were safe, I recorded everything because he took this to a whole new level and the doctors needed to see this. 

Fast forward a few minutes and I finally got him in the house.

Elliott and Emmett ran and hid in the back of the house when Gavin came storming into the house and up to his room. 

I followed Gavin upstairs to make sure he went and to finish documenting, incase he self injured.  After a few minutes of violent stomping and blood curdling screaming, my phone rang, killing the recording. 

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However, it just happened to be Dr. Reynolds office calling to confirm our appointment in the morning. 

They heard what was going on and called Dr. Reynolds who suggested that we have Gavin taken to the ER via ambulance because there was no way we could safely transport him. 

We opted not to do that because we were seeing Dr. Patti in 30 minutes.  The other way would have been more drama and by the time they would have actually arrived, he would have likely been done. 

Lizze and I went back upstairs to talk to Gavin because he was slamming himself into the floor and shaking the house.

He was screaming and trying to challenge me physically by acting like he was going to throw his desk at me. 

We told him that he would no longer be allowed to live with us.  We told him that we love him and that he will always be a part of our family.  However, he can’t live with us anymore.  He fake cried for a minute before stopping to fix the sheet on his bed. .

I had just essentially evicted my son and he didn’t care.  He didn’t care.  I was dying inside and Lizze was fighting back the tears and he couldn’t have cared less.

He simply isn’t capable of caring.  That’s a concept that I will never fully be able to process. 

We went and met with Dr. Patti and she told him the same thing.  He can’t live with us anymore.  Dr. Patti said that he’s doing the same type of thing to Lizze that he’s going to his classmate. It’s cold and he’s just simply not capable of caring or feeling remorse.

It’s not his fault that he’s this way, it really isn’t.  I don’t think that he would choose to be this way on purpose.

Having said that, he is still very responsible for his actions and everything he does is a conscious choice. 

I don’t know what else to say. 

We are doing the right thing but I still feel like a monster.  I’m way more upset about this than Gavin and I just can’t wrap my head around that.

I’m sure there will be some people who can armchair quarterback this to hell and back saying that I handled this wrong.  Maybe they would be right. I don’t know. 

Seriously though, we don’t exactly have an instruction book for this.  We’re also not just dealing with an aspie. We’re dealing with a cold and remorseless child that is capable of truly unpleasant things.

I can promise you that not many people out there have ever experienced something like this. I be really honest with you, I’m  grateful for that. 

I evicted my son tonight.  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, ever.  :-(

We have temporary arrangements made and I’ll go into more details later, I’m just too tired..

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/16/i-evicted-my-son-tonight/

Oct 12 2012

WTF just happened

Gavin’s arrived home and Lizze and I were talking to him about his treatment of the hospital staff.  He basically told me that Mommy made a big deal out of nothing. 

We informed him that he lost his choice for dinner and would be having oatmeal. 

He was okay with that. 

Lizze, while talking to me afterwards said that he probably didn’t care about the oatmeal because he had pizza for lunch.  I responded to Lizze by saying, maybe he won’t go to Grandma’s this weekend. 

Mind you,  I was talking to Lizze and not to Gavin.  In fact it was more like I was thinking out loud. 

Apparently, Gavin overheard me and launched into a huge tantrum.

I managed to get him into his room and he unleashed all his rage.  I made sure the boys were okay because Elliott ran away hysterical. 

I went back upstairs to talk to Gavin.

I asked him why he was upset.  He screamed at me that he was mad because he couldn’t go to Grandma’s house.

I told him that I never said that.  I explained that I was talking to Mommy and he simply overheard part of the conversation.

He responded with,  then why am I freaking out? He was completely calm until he realized that by having the tantrum he probably through away his chance to go to Grandma’s anyways.  At this point, he began to tantrum again.

Unbelievable…..

I don’t know what we are going to do.  We may send him anyway, just to get him out of the house.

Lizze and I will have to talk about this. 

This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct hate me.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/12/wtf-just-happened/

Oct 11 2012

We survived yet another tantrum

Gavin had a huge tantrum, shortly after arriving home from school today.  He lost his choice for dinner tonight because we caught him lying to us again.

The tantrum began in the dining room and eventually was moved upstairs and into his bedroom..

This was probably the most aggressive to date however, it was short lived.

I flat out told him that I knew he was doing this on purpose and that was evident by the many times he stopped to check the time or his heart rate.

I told him that if he makes contact with anything other than his mattress or screamed into anything other than his pillow,  he would be having oatmeal for breakfast in the morning.

No sooner did I say that,  he stopped, dead in his tracks.

He realized that the tantrum was no longer of any benefit to him and that by continuing he would be losing his choice for breakfast in the morning.

That was that.

It was the most explosive we have seen but it didn’t last more than 15 or 20 minutes.

That was a really good choice in Gavin’s part to quit while he was ahead.  I made sure to tell him that as well.

There is still a great deal of stress and overstimulation to deal with as a result but no one was hurt and nothing was broken.

I’ll take what I can get.

 

 

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/11/we-survived-yet-another-tantrum/

Sep 30 2012

The aftermath of the tantrums

I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the fallout from yesterday’s RAD tantrum. Elliott was probably the most visibly affected by the events of yesterday.

He doesn’t want to be in his room alone. When there,  he breaks down in tears.

Elliott is so anxious to start with that these tantrums push him over the edge. It can take days for him to relax and come down from his anxiety high.

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How stress affects the body

On the other hand we have Emmett. 

Emmett tends to become more easily frustrated and therefore more aggressive. This also makes him much less cooperative.

Lizze is barely able to move today as she in a fibro flare.  There’s no doubt that the stress from yesterday has exacerbated her symptoms. Stress is a fibro sufferers worst enemy.

Life takes upwards of a few days at times,  to return to “normal”.

It’s important to understand that simply because the tantrum has ended, doesn’t mean it’s over.  :-(

This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct hate me.

Please join our Autism Help Forums

Look for “Autism Help” app at the Google Play Store


Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/09/30/the-aftermath-of-the-tantrums/

Sep 17 2012

Massive Tantrum

Gavin just had a massive tantrum.  We had to actually gut his room because he was throwing anything he could get his hands on. 

He kick is shoes off and almost sent one through his window.

He was punching the wall and of course himself.  He kept screaming “you’re so stupid and I hate you”, over and over again. He’s either talking to himself in the 3rd person,  which is, well, kind weird.  On the other hand, he could be talking to us,  which is well, sorta scary.

He went on for about an hour before deciding to stop.

The E’s were pretty freaked out and Gavin was pulling out all the stops.  He has no regard for how his actions impact his little brothers.  :-(

This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct hate me.

Please join our Autism Help Forums

Look for “Autism Help” app at the Google Play Store


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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/09/17/massive-tantrum/

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