Funny, I have 2 small kids and agree completly with your first paragraph. I was even more of a belieber before I had kids, especially my 2nd one. I am very scrict parent. With that being said they still have their moments. I am ususally right there though to correct them.
With that being said that does not go the same for DD#2 Madison. Madison has PDD NOS and Sensory Integration Disorder. When you see her you would probably not notice anything about her. Her little brain just processes things diffrently. It has been quite the learning process for us!!!
There are many times when she will "lose it" and there is nothing anyone can do about it. She does not even have the ability to calm herself down. She just has to "work through it" Now if that happens in a public place ususally my husabnd or I will remove her from the situation as to not bother everyone else.
Before I had kids and would see kids out misbehaving & I always said "my kids would never be like that" "my kids will never act like that" etc...
Now I have a very NEW outlook on things. I used to get annoyed now I feel sympathy. It is so hard sometimes. I am basically a "single mom" most of the time. DH spent more time in Iraq then home and now has spent the last year and half living 6 hours away from us. It gets very hard for me!
Last night was prime example of this... Me and the girls had to drive to LA. We got to the first stop and Maddy refused to go to the restroom. The whole place overwhlemed her. So I let it go and we moved on to Ikea. When getting there the girls were hungry. I sat them in the kids area and went to get the food. While on line Madison goes to the restroom ALL OVER herself. Mind you this is only the 2nd time in her life she has EVER had an accident! One thing with Maddys' PDD NOS is that she is a rule follower. She potty trained like a breeze bc she considered it more of a rule then anything. So anyway, she started to FREAK OUT. She just could not hold it in and waited too long to tell anyone. I know have two trays full of food, they don't sell clothes in ikea and a kid covered in pee. Now her sensory integration kicks in...meaning her senses are on complete OVERDRIVE all the time. She CAN'T stand feeling "wet", she can swim in a pool or take bath but can't stand to have her hands or feet wet or be touched by anyone with wet hands. It makes her feel like there are a million ants on her. She could not bare the feeling of standing there in wet pants and she (in er mind) just broke the rules by "going potty in her pants (as she put it). Maddy just would not stop, it was a nightmare. I was all by myself, I could get the food packed up fast enough, just a nightmare. I had 2 women starring at me like I was the worst mom in the world and that my kid needed to stop. In their defense they did not know what was going on with the whole situation but they still passed judgement on me and my situation. As I am packing up our stuff Maddy just would not stop. I quitly asked her why she was so upset. She said she was sad that "she went potty in her pants" I kept telling her "it is ok, I am not mad at you" It did not matter she was just sobbing!
I know there are kids that do get away with a lot though. I have a friend with 3 kids who are a NIGHTMARE. She believes kids should have the opportunity to just be kids and no matter how they misbehave it does not matter. I do not agree with that at all.
It is just not always that easy. I am one of the strictest parents you will find but from the outside it may not look that way. We can't yell at Maddy, we can't spank Maddy and we can't really tell her "how bad" she is at the time. It only causes her to shut down more and have an OVERWHELMING anxiety. She gets SOOOOO disappointed in herself when she is "bad". This whole thing has been such a learning process and everyday we struggle to see the world through maddy's eyes.
Now again, from the outside you would never know any of this about her. So just know that there are some of us out there who try to no end to have children who behave but sometimes just can't do a thing about it. It is just not that easy. I really wish it was. It is especially hard when you can't see anything wrong with her on the outside. It makes for outsiders to have a very difficult time understanding why she acts the way she does.
There are people with and without kids who will never understand a day in the life of Maddy. I didn't until I had her. I had to learn, I had no choice, for all of our sanity! Just know for my case if you ever see Maddy acting up, I am probably just as frustrated as you inside, there is just not much I can do about it during that time! During a meltdown there is just really nothing we can do. Like last night, there was NOTHING I could do to quite her down. I tried to get out of there asfast as I could!
The top 5 chattiest individuals on take 1 were:
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unless they have been to the emergencys I will not know them.
