Another one of those mornings....

[milesofsmiles]

We have had our share of bad mornings, but this one was a little different. I think that we have built in a bit of tollerence toward certain behaviors in the morning in order to get him out the door. I honestly thought we were making progress, he got all of his winter clothes on without me standing over him, repeating 20 kazillion times to get back on task. Mucho praise . The last thing to do before leaving was to take the medicine.

I got a stern NO. Usually I can rephraise the question to offer something and he takes it. This time he just told me that 'you can't make me take it'. This is true, I asked him to try one more time, he knocked it out of my hand and stomped on it. With a growl, he told me that "you can't control me". I got down on one knee, looked him squarely in the eye and said in a stern voice, "You are 8 years old, and we have given you too much freedom. You will see how much control we do have."

He said some hate stuff to me and huffed out to the car. I said some prayers for our family this morning as we begin our journey down the dark path. It's not going to be fun, but who said parenting would be fun.

Of course we did not have a lot of time to discuss why he did not want to take his medicine, and he did say he did not know why he did not want to take it. I did explain the difference it made in his school work, his behavior with is friends and teachers. But he will have to weigh that with the fact that he either comes homes with all smiles on his daily report, or all frowns, (he hates frowns).

Why does it always seem so tough....

Thanks for listening.

Miles

[mom2tj]

parenting is tough

[Linda]

You did the right thing. You made him responsible for his own actions..Let us know if he got frowns or smily faces....or worse a phone call.

Parenting is HARD

[mskris]

Miles ,

I am having similar issues with my ds 9...only he's sneaky. A few times he's said he doesn't want to take his med., but usually gives in with a little coaxing. Twice in the past 2 weeks I've found his pills under the thingytail table in the family room. Once, dh said they fell and they couldnt' find them (of course, who'd think to bend down to look?) and he gave ds more. The last time, though, I think ds just hid them there. I usually have him take them in front of me, but dh (who usually does the morning routine) doesn't. He just hands them to ds and walks away. I think we're going to have to monitor him more closely.

Why don't they want to take the med, when it obviously improves things? I don't get it. Ds complains they taste bad, but that's crazy, because he takes capsules and he swallows them easily. There is no "flavor." Hmmmm.

I don't know what the answer is...can you put your son's meds in a treat (like chocolate pudding) to help him out? If he takes them, he gets the rest of the treat?

Good luck. Let me know if you find something that works, and know that you are not alone.

Kris

[Annette]

I've made our mornings very routine.We do everything at the same time everyday in the same order.We no longer have any fights in the morning.

The evenings are a different story.

[milesofsmiles]

Thanks for the replies. I think Barry's post about storms sums up our lives. Our son is a brewing storm, and sometimes lightening strikes. There is nothing more consistant about our lives than our morning routine. The only thing that changes is the way our son chooses to respond. We wake him up the same way every morning, but you can tell if the storm is in his eyes by his first response. "Good morning or go away". So this morning was another 'stormy morning'. We'll see what tonight brings.

Miles

[mom2tj]

Miles, at least you can tell what mood he is in. I need that red light someone mentionned....

[milesofsmiles]

Uhhh, that was me too.