Today, one of my sons got his new Ipod Touch in the mail. This child has worked hard, saving up both his hard-earned allowance and his birthday money from over a month ago. He truly earned purchasing this item, and he was extremely excited about it. I knew, however, that the day would not be [...]
Last week was….you guessed it! Therapy week! Oh yea! This time, we basically spent the entire session discussing issues and talking about me. How I need to handle situations, planning out the summer schedule, my feelings toward my children’s behaviors…..that sort of thing. Something our therapist told me really stuck out. She said, point blank, [...]
Much of the way we must parent children with Reactive Attachment Disorder goes completely against any and all logic and “normal” parenting. In “normal” parenting, negative behavior is followed by a negative consequence (either natural or one determined by the parent), to try to teach the child a lesson. With RAD children, many times their [...]
When dealing with wounded children, we generally assume that it’s not a matter of “if” we will be accused falsely by them. It’s a matter of “when.” Wounded children triangulate. It’s just a matter of fact. Usually, the source of our false allegations (at least the ones we know about) have been our third son. [...]
We had therapy this week. Good thing, too, because this week has been tough for me. My angriest son has been working hard to make life tough, and I’m feeling burnt out again. I had gotten back to the point where giving loving eye contact was nearly impossible, and I just didn’t want to deal [...]
Yesterday, I took my kiddos to an amazing ranch in Yakima to do some therapeutic horseback exercises. This ranch, a non-profit, offers a program throughout the summer of therapeutic interactions and eventually horseback riding with the kids for free. By the way…if you live in Yakima or Tri Cities area, you should totally check out this place! [...]
I made a realization today. It came in the middle of my hour and 1/2 with my son during the school day. (You know, the time he stays home because he got kicked out of his regular school program.) My son is stuck right now, and today he was making every effort today to try [...]
I have been talking and meeting with a lot of moms of wounded kids these past few weeks. One mom’s 17 year old adopted son just ran away this week. He was in a program for delinquents when they adopted him, but had been doing great up until recently. She’s heartbroken. Some moms don’t know [...]
I know this may sound crazy, but sometimes when I get the most burnt out with my kids it’s because of my compassion. I begin to take their behavior personally in several ways, and then start to resent their poor choices. First of all, sometimes I feel like there must be more that I could [...]
Wednesday was therapy day. That means a 2 1/2 hour drive into Spokane and then 3 hours in a row of intense therapy sessions. A very long day for me…and very emotionally tiring. Usually the day after you can find me sitting on the couch…staring comatose at a speck on the wall. (You should try it [...]
