I got up this morning and got in the shower, carefully turning on the radio so Daughter would be sure to hear and know that I was awake and she needed to be moving. When I got done in the bathroom, I announced that she could get in it. She questioned me about why her alarm clock hadn't gone off, and I told her I didn't know, but it was a fortunate thing she was awake anyway. I reminded her we were having pizza for lunch today at church. I went into the kitchen and again turned on the radio. I ate breakfast. I locked up food and got out medication. At 6:45, I told her good bye. She was still laying in bed, wide awake. I think she was shocked that I actually was going to leave her home alone. I did. I told her to have a good day. Hopefully she has learned I am serious about disengaging from the morning battle.
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I'm not sure what I'm going to do about her now. I suppose that at some point I'll have to go get her. Maybe the woman who volunteered to take her for a walk can pick her up at the house and bring her here after their walk. Maybe I'll decide I need to go to the bank and swing by the house to pick her up after the bank. I haven't decided yet if I'll let her participate in our noon pizza party. It will be interesting to see how long it takes her to call me, and what she says when she does call. In addition to making sure the food is locked up, I locked up her computer and the remotes for the TVs. She still has her portable DVD player, and she has her amazing ability to sleep whenever she wants to avoid something. It could be a very interesting day.
5 comments:
I love your strategy!!! Keep her guessing! Keep us posted. It would be great if she'd take this as a cue to begin to behave more independently without a million reminders (and fights).
I am so living your life, albeit with a kid who has fewer attachment issues and a little more intellectual ability. Neither of those differences make for a lot of difference in my level of frustration. Oh, and I'm old, old, old.
For today, she's sorry and going to do better. I'll write the whole story in a post later. Oh, and Miss K is keeping you young!
No, Pinot Grigio is keeping me young, and sane.
Good plan. It takes away her power to inconvenience you and make you late for work. Theoretically, she could get up to hijinks like destroying things and setting the house on fire or calling 911 and reporting suspicious noises (or better yet, a man dressed like a ninja who's attempting to break in and kidnap her) but she might not have the imagination or daring to go to those extremes.
A prison guard once told me that his charges would spend all their time sleeping, if they could; it's a way to disengage from reality. I was surprised because I thought they would be busily digging tunnels and making homemade knives and brewing pruno (nasty=tasting booze made from fermented fruit) but when I thought about it, it made sense.
If you don't want to be where you are and changing your attitude seems like too much work, sleep must seem mighty tempting/
I worried about all those possibilities, but I think it went pretty well. I got her attention, that's for sure.
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