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SS (5) had another violent freak out yesterday and almost caused a car accident.

Unhappy's picture

So yesterday was pretty interesting. After the last freak out at school when the BM had to call the cops on her own son because she couldn't get him to go to school it was decided that she would not be dropping him off anymore. She was supposed to have somebody else take him to daycare, she can't even manage to make him go there either, and have daycare drop him off at school. She managed to do this on Thrusday and Friday of last week but decided that on Monday of this week, which just happens to be the beginning of DH's week, that she's going to drop him off. We discovered she was planning on doing this because DH called her Sunday night to ask her what her plan was. He told her no and that he was going to pick SS up in the morning on the following day. BM of course didn't want to do this but she had no choice because it's stated in the custody order that it's his parenting time. So of course it needs to be on her terms so she agrees to it but tells him that he can't pick SS up until 8:40. I told DH that I would take him to school but he needs to be there much earlier, like around 7:00, so that way if SS has one of his I don't want to leave BM freak outs it gives him almost two hours to calm himself down for school. Well that never happened.

By the time DH showed up with SS and SD it was almost 8:50. SS refused to get out of his truck. When DH walked away SS tried to lock the car doors, which would have sucked because DH left his key in the ignition. DH was able to get to the last door before he got it locked. DH ended up leaving the driver side door open this time and went to get SS out of the back. SS again locks all three closed doors and then tries to get to the open door and get it closed and then lock it. DH was able to get to the door and prevent it from happening again. DH sat there in the back seat trying to coax SS out, which wasn't working, so I finally told him to pull him out of the car and get him into mine which DH did. As I was buckling SS up he was screaming in my face as loud as he could. DH finally had to put his hand over SS's mouth because he wouldn't stop.

As soon as he was buckled I jumped into the car and took off to school to drop everybody off. As I'm driving 45 mph down the street outside of our subdivision SS starts violently kicking the back of my seat. Everytime I looked back at him to tell him to stop he would try and kick me in the face. I finally had to slide out of my seat belt so that I could reach back behind me to try and restrain him. (I knew that if I pulled over or stopped SS was going to bail out of the car and I was going to have to chase him through traffic driving 45 - 50 mph and I didn't want to chance him getting hit by a car.) As I'm trying to restrain him he was kicking, clawing, and pinching me. Some how through out all of this I ended up in on comning traffic and almost ended up off the road.

I finally got to school and pulled up to drop everybody off. Both SD and my BD got out of the car at the drop off spot but SS refused. So I pulled into a parking space and got out, made sure to grab my keys, and opened the back door and told SS to get out and go to school. He refused and opened the door on the other side of the car and bolted out into the parking lot. I ended up chasing this kid through the busy parking lot and thankfully DH, who had followed me, was able to catch him. Of course the principal and his teacher are outside watching the whole thing so they came over to try and get SS into school. SS just screamed at the both of them.

It was finally decided by all parties involved that SS would not be attending school for the day and would go home instead. DH had to force SS back into my car and buckle him up. SS refused to be buckled and unbuckled his seat belt. DH told SS after he buckled him for the second time that if he unbuckled himself again that DH was going to pop his giant floating remote controlled shark. SS waited for DH to walk away from my car and unbuckled himself. At this point I was not going to fight with him anymore so I just drove home. (I did make sure to turn the child safety locks on this time.) When I got home SS refused to get out of the car like he did at school and tried to get out the other door and bolt like he did at the school but found that the door wouldn't open from the inside anymore. He then proceeded to try and kick out my window. I reached in the car and drug his little butt out. The whole time he was trying to kick the other window out in my car and was kicking me.

I finally got him into the house and into his room where I put him on his bed. I turned around and went to walk out of the room when one of his shoes wizzed by me. I turned just in time to watch him chuck the other one at me. I grabbed the shoes and walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. DH comes home grabs his floating shark, walks into SS's room, and pops it right in front of SS while he's screaming no no no at DH.

Now his room had already been stripped of all of his toys because of him assaulting a police officer and spitting in his face Wednesday of last week because he didn't want to go to school but there is a shelf high up on his wall that we left stuff on. (Not toys, just decorations for his ocean themed room.) He managed to get a hold of his sea shells and started throwing them at the door where they burst into little pieces. So Both DH and I removed all of the decorations from his walls and the shelving, plus DH took his bed out and just left the mattress on the floor. So at this point SS has four walls, a floor, and a ceiling. DH asked SS a question and SS refused to answer so DH went and got one of his toys and a hammer went back to SS's room and asked SS to answer the question. SS refused. So DH took a hammer to one of his toys. DH asks him to answer again. SS refuses so DH asked me to go and get another one of his toys, which I did. DH gives SS a couple more chances to answer and SS refuses so DH takes a hammer to that toy. After that DH asks him to answer again. SS refuses again. DH asks me to go and get another one his toys again. This time I grabbed his big remote control monster truck. When SS sees me walk in with that one he freaks out and finally answers DH's question.

SS also got his bare ass spanked twice, had to sit in his room all day with nothing to do, had to write sentences, had to eat at a different time then the girls did (which was timed because it'll take him an hour to eat when he knows he has to go to his room after dinner), didn't get to do the Christmas count down calendar, didn't get a treat, went to bed an hour and a half early, and didn't get to socialize with anybody. The girls have both been instructed to not talk to him for the rest of the week unless they want the same punishment.

I have no freaking clue what to do with this kid. He went to school today. I could tell he was a little iffy once we got there but he went regardless. This is just insane. He could have killed us all yesterday with that little stunt that he pulled while I was driving. I have told DH for years now that his kid is out of control and has no respect for him. DH states that he's on board with me now and that SS has no respect for any adult or authority figure and he's going to fix that. How? I have no clue. I told DH that because legally the exchange is supposed to be done on Sunday nights at 6:00 between him and BM with the kids that he needs to start doing that. If SS wants to have one of him BM freak outs fine. He can do it on Sunday night and then go to school on Monday. (These freak outs usually only happen when BM has been around or still is around SS.) And that way BM can't decide to experiment with SS and see if he'll let her take him to school on DH's day where DH has to leave work and deal with SS if it doesn't because technically it's not BM's day.

Any suggestions on what to do? I'm at a freaking loss here.

Comments

StickAFork's picture

I thought he behaved at your house??
Ugh, so many stories...I'm sorry I don't seem to follow all of them well. I apologize if I'm confusing you with someone else.

I have no advice. Just sympathy!!

Unhappy's picture

He usually does. It's when BM is involved which she was that morning. SS freaked out when DH went to pick him up which is what I knew he would do. That's why I told DH to pick him up earlier, like around 7, because it would have given SS a chance to clam himself down. BM wouldn't let DH and told him to come at 8:40 when school starts at 9:00. What DH should have done is told her that it's his day and he'll be over to get the kids at 7. Instead he let BM have her way.

RedWingsFan's picture

DH states that he's on board with me now and that SS has no respect for any adult or authority figure and he's going to fix that. How?
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I don't even know where to begin. This kid is just so out of control. Unfortunately, DH and BM should be the ones doing something to change/correct this kid's bad behavior.

If this were me, I would move the hell out until he gets this kid squared away and settled. I would not risk my life, my sanity or my own kid's lives over this brat.

Unhappy's picture

I think that doing the switches with the kids on Sundays like they are supposed to be doing will work, at least on our weeks. SS only freaks out when BM is involved. He would freak out on Sunday night and then be good to go for school Monday.

I've already told him that everytime he has one of his freak outs, that I will take him down to the fire station when he will donate one of his Christmas presents to a needy family. The same thing can be done after christmas. I will donate one of his toys everytime he has a freak out even on BM's week and that's on top of his punishment.

VioletsareBlue's picture

I believe this is best too. If that is what the CO says, do it. Don't deviate from it. I think it will help things to have him on Monday morning already... yes, yes yes!

VioletsareBlue's picture

I went through this with SD8. She would scream for hours, become violent and defiant. All of the things you are describing. I finally told DH I wouldn't live with a violent 6 year old so she went to counseling. We started parenting different. Spankings and removing stuff from her room and all privledges just didn't work for her. She didn't care.

We started focusing on the positive. Every day she didn't get into trouble she got to put a sticker on a chart (she still got punished for bad behavior, but we didn't harp on it). Her reward was McDonald's pancakes with DH every other friday morning if she managed to not get into trouble, at school or home, 5 out of the 7 days. It also helped that DH got full custody for several months. Once the Orc got overnights back we didn't ask SD8 to do any chores on Mondays because she was always exhausted from the weekend at the Orc's house. The Orc had (still doesn't) no rules, no bedtime, no nothin'. SD8 does whatever she wants and eats whatever she wants. We did switch counselors at one point after several months with the first one (wasn't any changes). The new counselor has been great. So with all the changes we made and the new counselor things have been pretty good at home the last year. Freakouts are rare the last year, violence has stopped.

There is retraining on Mondays still (table manners etc), but for the most part I think she is getting a handle on things. If she is angry she will tell us that she wants to be alone, so we let her be alone in her room (we check on her). Usually she is laying down and calming down.

My suggestion is to get this kid into counseling ASAP and try to change your parenting habits. It certainly was against the grain for us to switch parenting habits but it did work. Is there a way to get the kid after school and not Monday morning before school? Stop rescuing the BM when he acts up. Get custody for a while if you have to. It sucks but in our case, it made the difference.

Not much you can do to change how he acts with his BM but like my DH told SD8 last friday, "The households have different rules. You know this. Get over it and do what you are told to do."

Unhappy's picture

We are changing our parenting habits. Well...actually DH is. DH just didn't parent SS because SS was his little baby. Both DH and BM never taught SS to have respect for adults which is why he doesn't. This whole thing is a power thing to SS. SD got bad before Dh started to actually parent her but she never knew how much power DH and BM had given her. SS has realized it and that's a dangerous thing for an almost 6 year to know.

And we are planning on changing how the exchanges are done. We will be following the CO which states that the kids are to be exchanged at 6 pm in Sunday nights. This should resolve the Monday freak outs on our time because BM will no longer be trying to drop SS off at school.

Unhappy's picture

SS has always had violent temper tantrums since I've known him. This whole I don't want to go to school thing stared back in September.

Unhappy's picture

No. He's just been given adult status by both BM and DH his whole life and was never taught to treat adults with respect. I have watched this kid sream at his father and call him names when he was being told to go to his room for something that he did and not get punished for yelling and calling an adult names.

He's been raised this way. He can get whatever he wants and doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do because he can. He has the power and that's how things are in his mind.

Disneyfan's picture

Why didn't you just take your daughtet to school and leave dads to deal with his son one his own?

I can't believe dad hammered the toys. Then forced him to eat alone. The boy has real problems that are not being addressed. The mean spirited punishments aren't going to solve the problems.

OP, did you accept the job offer?

Unhappy's picture

Disney,

You have to understand that Dh is not being a mean spirited man. SS has no respect for him or any other adult for that matter. It became a power play when DH asked SS to answer a simple question. SS wants all the power, which he has had for a very long time, and DH is now trying to get it back. All SS had to do was answer the question when asked. He wouldn't so there was consquences until SS finally answered it. Is DH going to have to do that again? Nope. All he'll have to do is threaten it because he knows that DH means what he says.

I did the same thing with him with his sentences. He shredded around twenty pieces of paper refusing to write anything. So I told him that I would not make him lunch until he wrote the sentences. Guess what? Eventually he came to me when he was ready to eat and wrote all the sentences, which wasn't much, before I made him a sandwich.

stormabruin's picture

Kids learn what they live. The message your DH sent by breaking the toy is that when you don't get your way you start breaking other peoples things.

The kid is 5. He's been given power for the 5 years he's been alive. His parents should be writing sentences with him.

Unhappy's picture

I disagree storm. It was made quite clear to him yesterday that his toys which we paid for are not his. They are ours. It's not a right to have toys as a child it's a previlage. A previlage that can be taken away for not listening, being disrespectful, and being out of control. SS was given the option. Answer a question or lose a toy. SS decided to make a power play and not listen to DH so DH broke his toy with a hammer. You have no clue what it's like dealing with this kid. It's going to take some extreme parenting on DH's behalf to get the power back from his almost 6 year old.

stormabruin's picture

I have no issue with taking a toy away as discipline. Destroying a toy with a hammer is a violent action & not appropriate to teach a child.

Unhappy's picture

You can't just take the toy away it doesn't work and if DH said that he was going to throw it away SS would have told DH that he didn't care. What we are trying to do is figure out what needs to be done in order to get SS under control. He doesn't care if you throw it away fine. We'll find a way to make him care. DH's mother did this to him when he was a kid and it worked. It worked with SS too. I'm not really seeing the problem here. You are suggesting that we punish him in a traditional way when that won't work. You can't just take one of his toys away and expect that to be effective. SS's not going to go hammer crazy one day. It was a punishment and it was an effective one. Maybe a little extreme but so is SS's behavior.

PeanutandSons's picture

Extreme situations call for extreme responses.

Far better than him beating compliance into this kid.

Unhappy's picture

I agree. He did get his little bare butt spanked twice yesterday. I don't advocate spanking but I think that this situation warranted it. This is going to be a very tough battle for DH. If he can do it SS well be a much more well adjusted child. At least at our house.

stormabruin's picture

I was also wondering if OP accepted the job offer. It sounded like an excellent opportunity.

Lola383's picture

I'm glad your DH popped the floating shark and hammered the kids toys until he talked. I feel like DH is taking the power back and I'm SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I read the other posts about your SS and was horrified at this child's behavior. At least your DH is on board with you now and is making changes to correct this kid's behavior. I really do have to say, I'm relieved that your DH stepped up. He's only 6?? NOW is def the time to teach this kid who REALLY runs the show.

GOOD LUCK!!

Disneyfan's picture

There's something wrong with that kid.

The harsh punishments may get hiim to act a certain way in your home, but they are not addressing the core issues.

Unhappy's picture

You're right there is something wrong with this child. It's called parents not parenting and correcting bad behavior, allowing it to continue, and giving a child adult status and all of the power.

Unhappy's picture

Lol. Now that's funny and I wouldn't even want to see the temper tantrum that Dh would throw if I did that.

stormabruin's picture

No joke. Break something your DH enjoys & maybe he'll be a better parent. It worked for SS, didn't it?

What...it's only fair play when it's a grown-up breaking a child's toy? :?

PeanutandSons's picture

Little tip on making sure he stays buckled..... Cut a slit in the bottom of an empty yogurt cup. Place it upside down over the part of the buckle with the release button on it, buckle the sestbelt through the slit you made. This will pin the cup over the release button. You will be able to reach under to unclick it when you arrive at school, but he wont be able to bend his arm to undo it while seated and buckled in.

I've never done this personally, but a friend had to do this with her autistic son to keep him buckled in the car.

3familiesIn1's picture

Or - just put him back into the 5 point harness carseat - hell I can barely undo those things.

We had to inform SS7 if he kept unbuckling then he wasn't ready for a big boy seat and we'd put him back in the baby seat.

Unhappy's picture

This is good sound advise this issue is that no one can make SS go to school. He will take off running and violently attack someone if he's being forced. The school is not going to allow that child in the school when he as the potential to hurt the other children in an effort to get his way. As for DH being able go to class with SS he can't. Dh has to work as do I. We don't have time to miss work because SS wants to pull a power play and not go to school.

amber3902's picture

^^^^This^^^^

I bet after a week of bear hugs SS will stop acting up and go to school.

Unhappy's picture

When he does not take him to school, what is done with SS all day?

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This usually always happens on BM's week or the beginning of DH's week when BM drops SS off at school like she was going to do today but DH stopped her so usually he spends the day with his mother at her house.

And I am not acting helpless. I never have with the skids. I've told DH for years that SS is out of control but he refused to listen and wanted to live in denial. There's not much more that I can other then that. I've tried to get SS to follow the household rules but DH has a bad habit of accusing me of having it our for his kid and jumping my a$$ about it. (He said that he is going to work on it.) I know it's not my job to parent SS but I care for the kid and love him enough to try and not let him turn out as bad as what's possible at the moment. He's a good kid. He's very sweet, affectionate, loving, and fun with me when he's not having these freak outs.

I really do think that by doing the exchanges on Sunday night at 6, which is what is stated in the CO, instead of BM trying to drop SS off on the following Monday will really help. He usually only has these freak outs when she's involved some way.

Unhappy's picture

I think for right now we are going to try following the CO at the moment. This doesn't fix anything on BM's week. She can't take him to school at all. The end of her week last week she had someone take SS to daycare and had daycare drop him off without any problems. Daycare will even do this for free. The only issue is BM is an idiot and wants to prove that she's a good mother and drop SS of at school herself. This is where the violent temper tantrums start.

Unhappy's picture

And I appreciate that. I'm not sure what the issue is with BM. SS has been in all day daycare for his entire life so it's not like this hasn't been going on. I think that he's realized that he doesn't have to listen to her. She can't even make him go to the same daycare that he's always gone to that she managed to drop him off at for years if he doesn't want to go. That's why she has to have someone else take him there and he seems to have no problem going with someone else and leaving BM then. It's only when he decides that he doesn't want to do something that he has these fits with her.

hismineandours's picture

The school can turn kids away. I see it all the time. If a kid is too big of a behavior problem they just send him home. If it continues-the next thing op is going to get is a call from the school suggesting just half days, or every other day, or "home school" where they come to your home or a public place 90 minutes a week to provide an education for him.

To me it sounds as if transitions are hugely difficult for this kid. I agree with the Sunday night exchange. If you have a kid who has difficulty with transitions-then imagine the transition that this kid has this morning. I'm with my mom, no, now dad is picking me up, oh, wait he's transitioning me into sm's car, wait now I'm at school. Some kids just dont do well with transitions-no excuse for his behavior but if that's what triggers alot of it-you guys need to minimize and prepare him.

Next, I would get him in with a psychiatrist/therapist asap. Both. Therapist for the therapy evidently, and a psychiatrist for meds. I know, I know that so many dont agree with medicating children, but this child is risking other people's LIVES here-if you can find something that will allow him to better control his emotions and calm himself down you would be keeping lots of people safe. You can keep working on the parenting and his coping skills and perhaps eventually he could make a go of it without meds, but you frankly, IMO you need something that will work NOW and FAST for safety purposes. If your dh has turned over a new parenting leaf that is awesome, but typically in these situations kids get worse before they get better. He will not like the control and power your dh is taking back and will redouble his efforts to get it back from him. Which, wow, I cant imagine that.

Unhappy's picture

We can try that as well. I don't know how effective it will be but it's something that we haven't tried yet.

purpledaisies's picture

I would tell my dh that I will not be taking ss any where til he is under control. That is scary crap where all u guys could have died. No way I would refuse to take him any where period.

Sorry you are going through this. This kid is way out of control and I couldn't and wouldn't be putting myself or anyone else much less other kids in danger if he is acting like that.

misSTEP's picture

I would agree that even if SS can't control himself enough to be in the classroom, then he needs to be left in the principals office. Sooner or later, he will come to the conclusion that behaving in order to be with his classmates will be better than sitting in the office all day.

Unhappy's picture

I don't know what the school would do to help us in this type of situtaion. Dh needs to call them to see what extent they are willing to go to. I think that once the drop offs start happening on Sunday nights we won't have to deal with the behavior on our time because BM won't be able to drop SS off at school. It doesn't fix the behavior on her weeks but maybe that gives DH a chance to take custody of SS for right now until BM can get her sh!t in order.

bt-sped-gf's picture

You need to seriously look at behavior therapy. If the school is seeing this and sending him home I sincerely hope he is on an IEP and receiving services. Look into family therapy and therapy for the kids. THIS WILL ONLY GET WORSE