Yesterday Hubbins did a wonderful thing. We made dinner together early and then he sent me on my way to the movies so I could have a night out.
Unfortunately, the two kids who had been doing well...well they robbed Hubbins and I blind. Hubbins spent the entire day with those two and he thought they had gone to their room to read. But apparently, they only allowed the alarm to sound to their room and then they went into our room and stole everything that wasn't nailed down basically.
When I realized what they had done. I was livid. Under no circumstances whatsoever are any of them ever allowed in our bedroom and it was such a violation. I am at a loss, two weeks ago I found out that the other three were stealing as well. I can't lockdown everything in my house and I can't keep watch on all of them at the same time.
This means that nothing gets done. We are at a standstill. I can only homeschool one kid at a time and with the other two girls *still* acting out... well, looks like everyone is staying in the same grade this year.
We can't trust the kids to do chores to "repay" us because there are so many of them and it's hard to be following them. It becomes more of a pain then anything and I can't guarantee a return for that amount of time lost, does that make sense?
Plus, how long do these kids go without anything? Every time they earn the privilege to have something back, they act out. I have this set up I want to put out for them but with the standstill and all, I just don't know.
I was thinking of moving onto domestics in homeschool but I guess we are going to have to go back and revisit trustworthiness, responsibility and honesty. I've tested them and with the exception of the boy, the girls more than know the difference between right and wrong and there is absolutely no excuse for the oldest to be stealing.
I'm trying to be understanding and to acknowledge that these behaviors are just that. But as most of you know, it's not an easy feat.
I've been angry lately. Not at the kids but at people because they trigger these things with their big mouths. CDQ is major BPD and along with that comes the distortion of her self-image. She is a leap year baby and she's clung to that as being what makes her "special". A lady we know made the mistake 6 weeks ago of telling all the girls in girl scouts that CDQ was special because of her b-day and she totally regressed to the day she got here and has been there ever since. I'm not saying her behavior was stellar before but it wasn't starting all over again.
I don't know if you remember my post about Poufy's eyes being normal? But shortly after that, I took her in for another blood draw for her thyroid. The lady drawing the blood told her she had beautiful green eyes. One, Poufy's eyes are not green they are hazel. But again, her grandma (also the person who told CDQ she was "special" because of her birthday) used to call her the green eyed monster. The lady didn't stop there, she asked Poufy where she got her green eyes from. I saw total fear and paralysis as Poufy looked to me with disdain. I think it was the first time ever words have been exchanged between us through our eyes. I ignored the woman and Poufy literally started rocking herself. But the woman wouldn't let it drop. Finally I told her, but I didn't say what I wanted to say "She has her abusive murdering father's eyes." Instead I said it with out the murdering part because I don't want Poufy to think that (but I think she does) when people remark on her eyes . But I so wanted to shame that woman. Why of all things?
I know they were innocent people with innocent remarks but still...why those things? Poufy's had it rocky since then and her pupils are back to being huge.
I just can't seem to protect them and the urge is so strong but yet I still feel the need to protect Hubbins and myself from them. It's so complicated and it's a losing fight because I think it's something that can never really be done.

6 comments:
I am so sorry Sasha. I know this goes against everything we know but could you give them "permission" to steal every day for 5 minutes? Like pick a room they can "steal" from and tell them to go do it. Sometimes prescribing the problem will stop it. Sometimes not so much.
Im sorry too. Its a lot to deal with. Dont you wish people would just shut up sometimes. People just dont think sometimes.
I like Lisa's solution and it has worked cause we have us some crazy theives, too! Another thing, is if we notice that our kids are stealing something in particular, we will get them their own version of that particular thing so they won't "need" to steal it anymore. Basically, we do the opposite of whatever our gut instincts tell us to do LOL
Good luck! This one sucks.
Hi. I am new to your blog but would love to follow. I agree with Lisa about giving permission to steal. We did that but made it a "game" we were part of. Gave permission to steal but they had to not get caught. If caught item was to be returned plus paid with 5items of their own. They got tired of it quickly. With my then-6 year old I also took the liberty of "stealing" from her a few times. She was furious, got the point, and stopped stealing AT HOME. The other places we still had to frisk her upon leaving.
I'm floored about the green eyes comment. I'm sure the woman had no idea about Poufy's history, at least not the details that you mentioned, but she should have enough savvy to know when her words are making someone uncomfortable and stop talking.
The remark about her eyes was innocent. Most people would consider it a compliment but for pete's sake if a child is rocking and freaking out when you're talking about her eyes it's time to change the subject.
As for stealing, I'm clueless. My kids "borrow" our cars (the two older ones who can drive) because their cars are customized and they're afraid they'll get ticketed for illegal window tinting, illegal colored headlights and other dumb stuff they put on their cars. On one hand I'm thrilled that they work and pay for their own car stuff while going to high school and college but on the other hand I'm furious that they can't take their own cars to certain towns where the cops have a vendetta against spoiled kids with fancy customized cars. It's the kids' fault and they need to remove the offending accessories, but at seventeen and twenty I can't very well ground them.
The younger one "borrows" our digital camera and iPods, laptops and other electronic goodies. it makes us nuts and we've taken to locking stuff up but lately she's been good about asking permission.I guess stealing goes on in lots of homes. I've been known to "borrow" a certain top and purse that belong to my daughter.
I know that when I learned that DD had stolen a large sum of money from our bedroom, the emotions were just all over the place....how could she do this to someone she "loves"? How did she think we wouldn't know who it was? I was so hurt, mostly. Even though it's been over three years since that happened, when I think about it, I'm still hurt.
And maybe there are adoptive moms who can just have something like that happen and can blow it off, saying, "well, that's just part of her disability..." but I'm not one of those moms!
We now have a key lock on our bedroom door and lock it all the time. It's the only way we can do things. (And of course, once the bedroom door is unlocked, I also have to lock up my money because my DH has stolen from me over and over again....but that's a different story....
Anyhow, I just wanted you to know that I feel your pain...
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