Later in the day, I called him in to go run some errands and brought one of our neighbors with us. When we went, both kids behaved TERRIBLY. They wouldn't listen to anything I asked, they were touching everything in the store, running around, just very poorly behaved. By the time I got home, I was more than upset with the behavior, so I told G that the neighbor needed to go home and he wouldn't be allowed to play with neighbors for the rest of the night. He got mad. Refused to come inside. Kept telling me how I'm the meanest person ever, etc, etc, etc.
I finally got him inside and started putting self-adhesive laminating sheets on his new daily schedule I had created while he sat in his room throwing a fit. Throwing objects around the room. Yelling at me, etc. He came out and saw me "laminating" the schedule, and I messed up one of the pages and crumpled it up to throw it away. He got super mad, threw a chair at me, took the purple juice on the table and dumped it everywhere (including on the papers), and I just lost control. Up until that point I had been essentially ignoring his negative behavior, then I was so mad I smacked his butt, he then threw himself on the floor, and started crying about how I'm a jerk and he hates me. He tried to run out of the house, I wouldn't let him. Although he needed a wake up call, I felt really bad for hitting him. It didn't solve anything and I just responded to his violence with more violence.
I picked him up and carried him to his room (he was kicking and hitting me, and kicking the walls on the way) and sat him down in his room and told him to stay there until he calms down. He said no, and I can't make him. I told him he had about 1 minute to choose whether he wanted to calm down, eat dinner, and shower, or if he wanted me to force him to shower without dinner (showers generally calm him down).
He started yelling at me "I want dinner, I want dinner, I want dinner..." I heated up some spaghetti (his favorite food) and he was crying that he hates spaghetti and doesn't want that. He wants something else. He sat at the table staring at his food and yelling at me about how he didn't want that for a good 10 minutes while I did dishes and tidied up the house and repeatedly told him that if he was hungry, he could eat the spaghetti.
He started crying and saying he hates being this angry, isn't there medicine to help him. I told him there is, but he would have to talk to his "talking doctor" (what we call his therapist) about it. He didn't like that idea, and said he just wanted something from the store because he hates talking to talking doctors. He finally ate the spaghetti, and calmed down a little, and after some fighting (but not having to physically force him), I got him to shower and scrub his body, after which he calmed down entirely. He got his pajamas on, brushed his teeth, and wanted to spend some time with me. I spent time with him creating a project on "paint" on the computer, then prayed with him, and put him to bed.
His moods are so unstable and I worry so much about him. I've suggested more then once that I suspect that he may be bipolar, but his father doesn't want to hear it, and the doctors don't want to diagnose it until they hit puberty, but his behavior is so extreme I can't help but wonder. Needless to say, I'm glad he's in bed, I'm exhausted, and I hate seeing him hurt the way he does. I'm going to set up another appointment with his therapist ASAP. I want him to get help and be happy. I don't want his life to be so miserable so young. He truly doesn't believe that he can control his emotions or behavior and it breaks my heart.
So that was today. Tomorrow we're trying out the new schedule and behavior checklist. Hopefully it will help.
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