Overall - it's been a rough wk

Well, I try to out the cute and happy and funny things in this journal but after this morning... *sigh*

It's been a very rough week for Little Man (behaviourally) and, therefore, a rough week on all of us.

Something that I've been aware of for years is the fact that Little Man tends to experience backslides in one area or another when he is in a learning stage.

We might get days or weeks of defiance, poor toileting, a resurgance of echoalia or a temporary downgrade of some of his communicative skills.

Then, suddenly, he'll be back to "normal."

But he will have mastered a new skill or will have had an advance in some area.

This wk though, it's been very tough.

He has been reactive, violent and wildly emotional. Crying over the fact that he forgot to put the plastic dishes he wanted to wash into the drying rack. Not coming down when his Extend-A-Family worker was here to work with him on Tuesday and instead pitching a fit about not wanting to go and then pitching a BIGGER fit when I signed her timecard for a full shift but let her go home instead.

He has been rude, and mean and come out with a lot of things about how we are "the meanest parents ever" for doing things like making him go to bed as per our regular schedule, for giving him a bath, for giving him fruit choices for snacks.

And it always comes back to Little Man's claims that, "Daddy doesn't make me eat all healthy food." Or that "Daddy never gives me a bath." Or whatever.

Little Man goes to his father's place every other wkend. He is usually picked up between 7 and 9 p.m. on the Friday and returned by 5:30 (or sooner) on the Sunday.

His routines are in place in our home, and I have given that information to my ex but I have no control over what happens there.

Realizing that fact is a challenge. Especially when sometimes my son has worn the same outfit there the entire wkend because he wanted to and my ex didn't insist on him changing into something clean and fresh. Or when my son is dropped off and has last eaten a chocolate covered doughnut with a glass of chocolate milk. Or when he tells me that he was allowed to stay up until midnight...

Anyway -- this morning, Little Man was in rare form. So he's staying home this morning and going to school for the afternoon.

Grr Arrgh!