What I didn't say...

The therapist, let's call her T, asked me what I did for myself. I told her nothing.  But I realize that's not quite true.

I cuss.

I cuss for myself. It's my only outlet.  I liken it to a smoker though. I hate it. It makes me feel stupid and low class. I didn't start cussing in earnest until I was about 27 or so. I believe it coincided with painting Hubbin's entire house by myself and getting it ready for sale. By. myself. I learned I was allergic to  paint... There's more to that story and some day...some day I'm going to tell it all no matter who looks bad in the end.  So like I would imagine a reluctant smoker feels, I am a reluctant (although to hear me you wouldn't know it.) cusser.

Yes, it makes me a hypocrite to my kids, I'm sure,  because I always tell them I wish I would have never started and that I hate it and that I can hear how stupid I sound.  I have tried to stop but it's so frickin' automatic now, I stop in the middle.  I've tried the whole son of a biscuit but I've added a twist that ends up including a cuss word. *sigh*

I guess I get points for creativity.

Anyhow, I'm supposed to start meeting with a therapist of my own. I agreed to it. But I don't want to. I don't want to go back in to my past. It sucked, I survived, the end. Ya know?

I don't want to talk about what happened to me. I don't want to know.  I want to focus on how to manage my stress now.

You see as time goes on, one thing is becoming increasing clear. CDQ is killing me.

Tonight as The Oldest told me how CDQ managed to slip past me and still start crap with her, I literally felt my left thumb and knuckle swell. When I looked down at my hand, I saw the creases in my hand expanded.  My hand literally went into a flare up.  I knew it wasn't like that before because I had just tried to take some pics of the full moon outside and there's no way my hand would have let me hold the camera like that. Plus, it's a taut and painful feeling.

I've noticed that I have jaw pain. I grind my teeth all the time now. My jaw is always set.  After we came back from the therapists, I had large welts on the back of my tongue. I know this because one busted and I was in immediate pain and have been ever since.

I am not a hypochondriac. I've always been a very healthy person. Even growing up, I almost always never caught anything and if I did, I was the very last.

I'm just putting 2 and 2 together and it's pointing to CDQ.

Since I've realized this, I have been trying to minimize her effect on me.  I didn't even know I was letting her get to me so throughly. I mean, I know she was trying me but I didn't know she was succeeding. It feels like a violation because I can't seem to figure out how to control my body's reaction to her.  Tonight I was supposed to do a touching exercise with her. I just can't.

It begs the question, can I feel this way? Our kids are allowed space from us. They are allowed to decide when and where and how. Yes or no. Etc... But what about us parents?  Sometimes I am a single parent because Hubbins can't help. Don't get me wrong, he does the best he can. But he's known for a while that CDQ specifically stresses him out. He's more in tune with his body than I am. I feel like I have to protect him too.

Right now I just feel like my world is turned upside down and I have no control over anything.  I feel like I spend my time chasing other people's ideas of what should be. I feel like other people get to live their lives, make their own choices and decisions and I'm stuck being accountable to everyone.

My work hours were cut but I'm still expected to provide the same services I was doing with eleven additional hours even though those hours are gone. I keep expecting social workers, case workers, etc... to pop in and tell me I am a failure and to take my family from me. It probably is irrational. But I even feel like my own home isn't my own.

Somehow I'll find my ground and I'll be ok. I know I just have to find my voice and stand my ground. I just feel soooo tired.

Alone

So I met with the attachment therapist on Friday, just me. She didn't ask me anything about CDQs behaviors. She just said over and over again how awful it is for the "poor baby". If you are sensing sarcasm, yes, there is a little.  She didn't let me tell her anything about the "poor baby".

See, once upon a time, I did feel sorry for CDQ but then I caught her. It's a hard concept for me to swallow when I try to explain to the therapist that I feel this time is different. My other kids did things out of fear and they still do it and it's written all over their faces. Sometimes, CDQ does do things out of fear and I can tell. But she also does things out of malice. The therapist says that CDQ isn't even aware of what she is doing and I can understand that to a point. But when she brags to the oldest about how she likes to do certain things...things that the therapist is telling me CDQ isn't aware of doing...well...who do I believe?  

The therapist says CDQs short term memory is compromised, but CDQ admitted this to the oldest the other day when she hadn't been around the others to do these things for at least three days.

I was excited on Friday, I had hope. I even signed up for a parenting class. But my whole world turned upside down when she called CDQ in today and told me I could wait outside.

You see, CDQ was viewing this meeting as her get out of jail free card. She was viewing it as an opportunity to spew her lies to the sympathetic woman and to get a whole new family.

I told her I did not want CDQ to go by herself and that I had read that she shouldn't. So the therapist asked CDQ if she wanted me in there.

That was... frustrating. At best.  Of course she isn't going to want me in there refuting her lies. Duh.

So off CDQ went. We wonder why kids are all screwed up in general...well hello people! Mental or not, apparently the kids rule the world and we are their servants.

I got the last 10 minutes with both of them. I want more than anything in the world not to feel the way I do right now. I want to trust this therapist. I want to know she understands.  But I don't feel that. She kept cutting me off.  She kept telling me it was ok for CDQ to tell lies and for me to tell her it was ok.

But to me it's not ok.

I'm the sole person to protect my family.  I feel like CDQ has all the power. One lie to the right person and my WHOLE family can be gone.  Think about it, put yourself in my shoes.

My husband is handicapped.  If someone tells a lie, even he can be removed from my home against his will and put in a home.  My other kids are thriving, if they are taken from me, I don't know if they will recover again. To them, I'll be just another person who lied to them.

Yes, I am being hyper vigilant like my kids because *I* don't have anyone who will have my back for my entire family.  One kid shouldn't have that power. But I feel like she does.

People with authority have gone out of their way to make me feel incompetent. I've been threatened twice. Not because I did anything, just because I was asking for help. Help for my kids. Help to make them whole again.

Then I have this stupid autoimmune disease that is triggered by stress and trauma. I have no insurance because I am terrified of being diagnosed officially and then being denied insurance or being forced to pay for an insurance that I won't be able to use for anything pertaining to the "pre-existing condition"which is my sole need for insurance in the first place.  I feel like everything is stacked against me.

I feel like our kids do. I feel like there is no safe place.

I feel like I'm letting go of CDQ.  This therapist seems so excited because I know about the things she is talking about (strong sitting, tapping, reiki, EMDR--she calls all but the last different things). I just wish she would hear me, this time it's different.  Like her, I don't believe in labels or meds.  But I do know that  mental disease runs in her family. I wish she wouldn't rule that out entirely.   I know all the kids aren't the same and yeah, maybe my other kids might relapse...but it's NOT the same.  There is something wrong with CDQ. Even the therapist was surprised that CDQ had never been in a RTC.

So, I am going to give her a shot. I will let her try her thing. Maybe the therapist does have somethings up her sleeve that I don't know about.  I still spoke to her and told her what CDQ was thinking, I told her that I needed to be kept in the loop and I told her how the other therapist had threatened me.  She said she would talk to me and that she would never do anything like what the other therapist did...but I sit and wonder if I didn't make a mistake telling her that? I mean if one therapist thought something like that, maybe it's a flag to another therapist.

I feel like I will just go through the motions.  If this ends badly, I guess in the end it will help when I go to disrupt the adoption because I did try.  But if it works.... if it works.... well, I don't know if I can let myself go there right now.

I wonder if some of you who are reading this are frustrated with me.  Maybe you think I have it coming because I seem to just be giving up. But sometimes I wonder if it's worth the fight, if maybe some place else isn't better for her.  I read about Gala and how she took in N and I see how much better N is doing with Gala and I have to wonder...sometimes...it's just the right thing. What if this is one of those times?

I have to say I AM at the end of my rope and I haven't tried this. I don't know whether to go with my gut feeling because my gut feeling is also rooted into the way I was brought up which I know was wrong.  (Control, power, strict---children should be seen and not heard, do not speak unless you are spoken too (grandparents)/if you just smack the kid and bully it, it will do as it's told (mother and stepfather). For clarity, that's the way I was raised not the way I am raising my kids AT ALL.) I feel like my gut feeling is more of a feeling of fear than anything else.  Maybe if she would have listened to me, but maybe it's true what she says... it doesn't really matter what CDQ is saying.  She didn't really say it like that, but she basically said that everything CDQ says and does comes from fear and that I shouldn't pay attention to what she says as much as I should work on making her feel safe.

This therapist is a certified Beyond Consequences trainer. She follows the love based approach of Heather Forbes and B. Bryan Post.  I've just started reading the book, she said things will be clearer after I have read the book and taken her parenting classes. I start my classes next Wednesday.   I wish I knew someone who has used this stuff. Someone who has had an attachment therapist who uses this stuff.  Because on the other side of the token, what if this is the answer. What if *I* am the one who doesn't "get it"?

She did some tapping, reiki and EMDR with CDQ today, should I be present for that stuff anyway?  She said for EMDR that I wouldn't be in the room anyway.

I just need to know that my family is safe.

Daughter

I've been sick the last couple of days. The "knocked on your @$$" kind of sick.  It was a combo of queasy stomach, flo visiting, RA flareups hell.  My stomach is still complaining but at least it's not as bad.

Friday, I decided homeschool was having a half day. I had been sick the day before, but it really hit Friday and yesterday. So I sent the kids outside after they finished their packets for the day. (I know sneaky...it's a half day at school but you have to finish a full day of school work!)

Anyhow, the boy, Poufy and CDQ  were outside playing when the boy and Poufy came flying in. They were both talking at the same time and CDQ came running in behind them trying to scream above them.

Of course I knew CDQ had done something again.  This time she decided to share her dream about a man grabbing his weenie and peeing in her mouth.  She knows this is inappropriate.  She's lying to me that she didn't tell the younger ones on purpose.  I was torn between WTF? and why are you abusing them?

See, this is the way I feel... wtf? because where does she get this stuff from? Did it really happen to her? I don't believe someone can dream something like that without having seen it. Which leads to What the hell is wrong with people?!?! I mean peeing---REALLY!?!  Argh.

Then there's the other part of me that gets pissed in a different way. I can see CDQ not wanting to play what ever Poufy and the boy were playing but because they were having fun, she had to spoil it and what better way then to mentally abuse them? I've learned that she's doing it all the time. They have bad dreams when she's around them and who can blame them? She's flipping them off and threatening them with her fist to her face in the hallways where there are no cameras and when I'm not there.

I try my best to limit how many kids are out at a time. But sometimes they get passed me. I tell them to yell or to tell me when it happens, but she scares them.

I keep thinking and even dreaming about my kids. CDQ is running my house. I don't like that. My other kids are flourishing but they are still locked down in a sense. I think in a previous post, I mentioned that they could do without the door alarms and talk restrictions. They can branch out. They've earned trust.

So, Friday after the kids ran in, I decided CDQ needed to come in.  For her birthday we had given her an American Girl sewing project. I sat her down next to me and while I worked on her baby blanket, she worked on the stuffed owl she was supposed to sew.

It was so different. Not CDQ, she lost her patience with me several times because she believes she knows everything even when she is asking for help. But my other children played outside until dinner with no problems. No fights. If they came in it was for water and the bathroom. We could hear them giggling and laughing SO HARD through the intercom. We are talking like 5 hours together with no fights.

I figured something needed to be done. I could see such a difference in them. In my mind I saw the boy crying with his head on the table because he didn't want to leave us.  Yep, CDQ had told him something that made him think he was going to have go.  I reassured him this was his home and no one was going anywhere save for maybe CDQ.  I said that because I don't know and I want it to be clear that it's a possibility BECAUSE she needs help.  The last thing I want is for her to be removed and the others to start wondering when they are next because they figured I lied about anyone going anywhere.

So my solution is... I have a four bedroom house right now. The kids occupy three.  I have put up fabric shower curtains in the rooms to separate each side to try to make it a room of its own.  Poufy and CDQ share one room, the boy and SS share the other and the oldest is in the big room alone.

Today I will be on a mission to find bunk beds. I still believe the oldest needs a room of her own and I will give her the small room. Which by the way, the small room is 10' by 10' with walk in closet. I believe that is standard and the reason why I bring it up is because sometimes I want to wring the oldest's neck. She complained.  I mean, really. I can just move her in with CDQ, turn that room back into my sewing room and call it a day. Right? At least she's getting her own flipping room, you know? But I digress, I want to find bunk beds because I want to put SS, Poufy and the boy in the big room and CDQ in the other small room by herself.

I don't know the dimensions of the big room but when we bought the house it was already painted for Blues Clues, but more importantly, it has vaulted ceilings so I can put a set of bunk beds in there and not have to worry about them taking off their heads with the ceiling fan.

CDQ insists she wants to be alone. She will get to be alone.  She demands to be given what she has earned she will find out what that is. She has been holding the other children back and I stupidly have been letting her. Not anymore.

I'm not going to allow her to control what goes on around here or stunt the growth of the other kids because she doesn't want them to be happy.

I'm not talking about full isolation. But I am going to encourage them all to grow and give the other kids a chance to prove themselves.  This means, I will leave their door open during the day. I will trust them not to steal because when it boils down to it and I think about it...they haven't for almost a year. CDQ has, but not the others. CDQ is still eating from the trash but the others aren't. CDQ is still touching herself but the others aren't.  The others do lie, but it's not automatic anymore. Sometimes lies come out and we talk about it, but for the most part they are being as honest as kids can get when they've done something wrong. CDQ is still blatantly lying and getting violent over it.

No, I don't think they are angels either. They get into disagreements and I let them work it out amongst themselves and they do because their disagreements (without CDQ ) are normal sibling stuff.  I'm proud that they can work it out. I'm not trying to make it sound like CDQ causes everything and we are all unicorns and rainbows without her. I'm just starting to realize the truth about what is really going on here. I was so used to saying "you guys..." but it's not "you guys" anymore and I am so grateful to be seeing it now before the other kids might have given up on me.

I guess I'm hoping for the others to continue to grow and either CDQ will decide she wants to be a part of it or not.

Somebody once told me if I could save one of them it would be worth it all and I thought it was ridiculous.  But now that I have four on the line. I so get it. I understand.

On that note, I will leave you with something I can't remember whether I shared or not.  It was an eye opener. Poufy had come in to tell me good night and she made a point of saying "Mom" loud and clear for CDQ to hear, jokingly I said in the same loud voice she had "Goodnight DAUGHTER!" I listened to hear if CDQ was going to say something to her but instead I heard Poufy skip towards the kitchen and hiss to the other kids. "She called me daughter! I'm her daughter." Even typing that makes me tear up. I had no idea that any of them wanted that.  They had pushed me away so much that I just stayed where I was at not wanting to push them or take anyone else's place.

My eyes are opening.

ICK-A-PICK

So last night at dinner, we were sitting around and the kids were talking about this and that when CDQ, as usual either has to bring up bad things from the past or say things to try and scare the kids.

For some reason, last night it was about the stupid bloody mary thing kids do in the bathroom with a flashlight or something. It was clearly bothering SS who asked her to please stop talking about it.

I had already tried to steer the conversation a different way without conflict, but CDQ just seemed to think she was supposed to continue on in intervals around everyone else's topic.  Any how, SS had politely asked her to stop and CDQ lashed out at her and told her "then you should just cover your ears."

I told CDQ she wasn't being very nice and asked her how happy she would be if someone was saying something that scares her and they wouldn't stop.

Little Poufy, decided she was going to try and intercede. She said with wide eyes "I didn't know that the Queen's name was bloody mary!"  I asked her where she found that out. She said the dictionary.  She said they have a lot of queens in there.

There was one queen she said she couldn't read her name, but she was the queen of ickapick.  I laughed and said "What?" and she repeated it. I asked her to spell it but she couldn't remember.

I said "Ick--A--pick..." really slow trying to figure out what it sounded like and came up with nothing.  In the meantime, the boy was sitting across from me and had this "lightbulb moment". He said: "Oooooooh, IckAAAAPick." and shook his head like he knew exactly what she was talking about now that I had said it slow and all.  SS chimed in like she'd been to IckAPick herself. The whole time their serious little faces are smeared with chocolate icing and bits of chocolate cake and green sugar.

I looked at them and then I realized they thought that I had corrected Poufy's pronunciation of Ick A Pick.  Then I laughed my head off and explained that I was just repeating what she said and still had no clue what she was talking about.

We didn't figure out what she was talking about until later. After dinner, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we decided to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  In the movie, there's a horse named Cleopatra.

Poufy said, "that's the name of the queen I couldn't remember!"

I didn't catch on until Hubbins said "Cleopatra? Do you mean Queen of Egypt?"

The mystery of Ick-A-Pick has been solved! :-)

Attachment Therapists or The crazies, Part 5

This is part 5 of a 5 part post: 

Part one is here

Part two is here

Part three is here:

Part four is here:

===============================================
I told you guys I had a lot to say.  I'm just picking up on the recent stuff.  This is so exhausting and draining.  I know it's a lot to read... but I thank you for "listening" and I thank QueenMommy for being so open and honest about her feelings in her last post and helping me feel like this something I need to sit down and do.

When I spoke to the intake specialist, I told her that I needed to know how to go about disrupting an adoption. I had to go back to the beginning and explain what was going on, list to her all CDQ's disorders, etc...

She asked me if I wanted to schedule an appointment with a therapist. I'll be honest with you and anyone else who asks. No. I didn't. I told her about the last "play therapist" and the triangulation and told her that I just don't think I could go through that again. I needed someone who was trained in RAD.

Are you sitting down?


I am almost about to cry... I said that flippantly to her  because there were never "RAD specialists", in fact the only one who was the closest to knowing anything more than what it stood for was the doc that prescribed the meds who worked for this place but she didn't do therapy. She mentioned they worked on attachment issues there at the center, I believe, but I was so beaten up by the last therapist and the lack of cooperation with the insurance company and the kids meds that I decided to try to figure it out myself back then.

They have TWO therapists who work with RAD kids and there is a woman therapist who she was thinking of for CDQ.   This woman works exclusively with RAD kids.

I was fighting back becoming a blubbering idiot over the phone with the intake person.  She told me she had asked all the questions she needed and she would be passing the info to the director for his decision on whether they could take CDQ on.

I didn't hear from them that day.

Yesterday at lunch, I couldn't even make eye contact with CDQ. I knew it was stupid...but I'm serious when I say no matter what I do, I'm doing something to her, even if I'm not even acknowledging her. Or more precisely as Hubbins puts it. "There's something about you where she just keeps coming after you and attacking you."

Any how, all of sudden she's dying to talk to me. She's doing the equivalent of getting in my face (at least as close as she will let herself to me) and telling me what she thinks I want to hear.

I sat there and even though I had no facial reaction on the outside, I was cussing myself out on the inside... I was yelling at myself because, I mean, isn't this what got us to RAD in the first place in a way. Her mother rejecting her and ignoring her? I'm just like my freaking sister!  Aren't I? I'm doing the same damage! She's trying to reach out and here I am being a dumb@$$.

So, indeed like a dumb@$$. I took the bait.  I answered her and then she asked me if she could talk to me later.  I told her not if it was going to end up in an argument. She said "Oh, well, nevermind." I said "ok." and then she went on to tell me that it was probably going to make me mad and yell.  I told her I already knew it wouldn't because I will not let her upset me.  I also told her if it was about her leaving, it won't happen anytime soon, if at all and I'm not upset about it.

Because Lord only knows what kind of pleasure she would get out of thinking she's able to get a rise out of me.  It may be her problem because I used to let myself get all worked up and feel so bad for her, etc...but I really physically can't any more. Trauma and stress exacerbate my RA and sends me into flare ups. Then I'm no good for anyone.  I stopped letting her get to me to the point of panic attacks around last Thanksgiving.  Then when Hubbins was in the hospital and almost died, I let all that crap go because     I had all that time alone to see what a toll it was taking on me to have nurses telling me it was too much and looking at me with pity.   I had a chance to see the mess I've become and to know it's sooooo not working or making any difference to anyone.

I got a call late yesterday from the intake person. YES! They will take CDQ and she will have the female therapist.

Then I thought she said that the first time she wanted to see us together and then she would see CDQ separately.

I have to tell you, first that I am absolutely terrified to do this therapy thing, but I know it is absolutely necessary.

I told her immediately that the therapist would not ever be seeing CDQ alone because I know that children with RAD should never be left with the therapist alone.

She stumbled....and here's the part where I look like the lunatic. She had said that the therapist wanted to meet with me separately first so for me not to bring CDQ with me the first time.

Um, PARANOID MUCH??? *blush*

I'm not kidding when I say the last therapist totally pulled a mindf-- over all of us.

I have to say, I'm already liking her and I've never spoken to her. Could be my first mistake already.  The last therapist met with me and each of the kids. She had me describe their RAD (= negative) behaviors in front of them and then went down a list of behaviors and she asked the kids if they did those things.... yup one at a time...each child.

That's when the trouble really began...especially with the bathroom issues...crapping and peeing in the bedrooms, etc...

I'm very nervous because if the new therapist is a trained attachment therapist and she sees through CDQ...does that mean I am going to have to bring an angry violent child back home with me so she can terrorize my other regulated children now?

I am totally about admitting my mistakes, but I'm wondering if I should be so quick to put all my cards on the table? That's what the last therapist tried to use against me in the end.

Plus, I'm calling out to all of you. I am in dire need of advice regarding attachment therapists. What do I look for? What's ok and what's not?  What should I know?

Please help... If you don't know or know of someone who would have some stuff to share, forward this to them and ask them if they'd be willing to enlighten me. My appointment is on the 26th. I want to go in to it with my eyes wide open this time.

It's the last thread I am holding on to. Just a few weeks ago before all hell broke loose, she sat on my bed, knees touching, she held my hand as we watched Amazing Race. The weekend before that she sat at my feet with her head resting on my leg. My heart won't let me believe because of those shared moments, she's punishing us both.

The crazies, Part 4

This is part 4 of a 5 part post: 

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

Part three is here.

Part five is here.

=============

So the next day (yes we are getting closer to today).  I needed some help.  I needed at least two kids to help me.

CDQ jumped up that she wanted to help, but I chose Poufy and SS. I told CDQ that I know that she doesn't want to be around people and I needed two kids for the job and that's why I didn't choose her.

She had nothing to say about that.

At mealtimes, I have two kids that eat so fast they end up choking. The boy and Poufy. I had resolved that (or so I thought) by having them recite a math problem (i.e times tables) between bites.  I thought I was extra clever by having another child check the problem. So, Poufy would say 5x5 is 25 and CDQ would say it's right or it's wrong and then they would both take a bite.

Well, CDQ took this as an opportunity to control Poufy by taking her sweet time answering her whether the problem was wrong or right. I didn't know that because she didn't do that when I was at the table. I'm not always at the table with them because I'm feeding Hubbins in bed if he isn't able to get up that day.

So, when it came time for lunch, I told them that SS or the oldest would be checking Poufy's problems from now on (she's slowed down, but not enough to stop the choking)  which worked out nicely actually since they both need a refresher on multiplication problems and couldn't care less to control anyone.

All of a sudden, there CDQ is answering before anyone else gets a chance.  That time it was the oldest. I said "Wow, if I had known that all I needed to do was give the job to someone else and then she (CDQ) would want to spend time with you guys, I would have done it a long time ago." Well, then she stopped.

I find myself getting irritated but not.  I register the feeling but it's also like I just don't care anymore. Why try anymore when she's not going to let it get through?

At least that's how I felt at that moment. She took that moment to tell me she wants a new home.  She doesn't want to live here any more. She wants to live somewhere fun (read: where she gets to do what she wants...where she hasn't burned her bridges and she thinks she will get her way). I asked her if she really thought it was going to be better some place else. If she really thought she could treat people the way she wants to and get away with it?

This was not said in anger, sadness, or anything like that. I was like in a numb state and it was probably said in a low monotone voice because I am drained.  She didn't answer me, so I started to get up to leave the table and I told her I'll see what I can do.

She started crying and yelling at me that I'm mad at her and that I'm yelling at her.

This is her way of putting everything on me.  I feel like I don't even have the strength to yell, if I even cared anymore to argue with her.  Which I haven't in a long time.

I told her I wasn't mad at her at all and that still- I'm not yelling at her.

What can I do?  Some people might have seen a ton of ways I could've approached the problem. But by then, I was done. I needed a break and I didn't want to play the blame game with her.  It's circular and a waste of time.

I started feeling like maybe she would be better some place else. Some place where she is the only kid.  But I started to worry because what if she didn't end up an only, what if she hurt other kids? What if she grew up to be just like her mother?

Because honestly guys... that's what put me into my numbness. It's like living in the same house with my sister again.  The same self-issue problems, the same anger problems, the same jealousy, hatred and narcism.  My sister and her need to be everything and control everything tore our family apart. She was the beginning and the end. When we were children she did everything to put everyone at odds and it was always about her.  She made my Mom feel so guilty and so worthless that she quit parenting everyone.  She shut down.

Then when we all grew up and got away from her, she did her best to ruin things when we did come together...and now with this...she still talks shit about me. She says I took her children. She takes no responsibility for any of this.  She plays the martyr and that has torn our family apart. My other two sisters defend me. My mom insists that their bio mother is her child.  I know she's your child, but she's abusive and sometimes-- child or not-- you need to let go.  She's an adult- 30 is too old.  Your grandchildren need you... she made her choices.  Why do you let her guilt and manipulate you still?

I sit and think these things and I realize...I have four other children. FOUR.  Do I let her destroy them? or do I let the one go and take only herself down?

I choose to be not like my mother. I will not let CDQ destroy this family.  If it comes to it, I will be sad for her. But my other children need a chance. After I finish this series on CDQ, I want to write all about how my other children have blossomed.

When I started to imagine what it would be like without CDQ here... I realized, my other children don't need the door alarms anymore, they don't need the cameras anymore, they don't even need the baby monitors anymore.  There are still meltdowns and tantrums but they are appropriate. They are common sibling issues when you share a room, bathroom, toys, etc...  they still have issues but they are more PTSD related than anything else.

The other thing, I found out the boy stopped running down the hall and yelling "Good Morning Mom and Dad!" because CDQ told him he was stupid because he did that.  I found out she tells SS that she's a kiss butt because she likes to stand beside me and hang on me and hug me and tell me she love, love, loves me.  CDQ told Poufy she was dumb for calling me Mom too.

I've noticed that CDQ hates when we are all laughing and joking. We were looking at Valentine's day pics on my computer and laughing  at the faces that we captured them making and she stood there biting her finger nails giving us all dirty looks. She said "Can you guys please stop laughing!" Poufy told her "No, this is family togetherness!"  So bittersweet- sad and proud.

At dinner the other day, we were laughing so hard because the oldest was supposed to be listening to Poufy's math and as she said in her own words she was "used to tuning her out" and then she passed gas and was mortified. Nasty but so funny because I said " You were tuning something out" and Hubbins chimed in "It's still out of tune!"  (No, we don't usually laugh at that kind of stuff, esp. at the dinner table...but it was one of those things) I realized that CDQ got up and she was going through stuff in the kitchen that she's not supposed to be. She probably moved things too.

Anyhow, that day when I got up from the table, I came to my room and tried to call the doctor that used to prescribe the kids meds. It's the only doctor I could think of who could possibly help.  She wasn't in and they told me my chances of speaking with her where nonexistent because of her tight schedule so I told the receptionist I needed to know about disruption.

This led to a conversation with the intake specialist...

The Crazies, Part 3- The day after.

This is part 3 of a 5 part post: 

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

Part four is here.

Part five is here.

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The next morning there was hostility at the breakfast table from the other kids toward CDQ. They don't like the way she treats me or them.

I decided we were going to have a family meeting.  I told them that they needn't worry or be mad at CDQ about the other day because I truly wasn't mad then nor was I mad now. It was a new day and as far as I am concerned yesterday was the past and there's nothing we can do to change it.  It's done.

Probably not the best approach, but I thought about it and like I said in my previous post. I dunno what I could have done which, BTW, I am totally open to any suggestions or advice and won't take offense because I know we are all in different situations and see things differently and when we offer up something we don't mean to criticize or give bad advice, etc... it's all in the best interest of the child. Which is why I am putting this out there.

CDQ told me she wasn't mad anymore either. That she thinks it was because she had a dream the night before the incident where she saw her bio mom's face and she (bio mom) was screaming at her (CDQ) but it was my voice that her bio mom had.  That's when the oldest chimed in that she had the SAME dream except it was my face and her bio mom's voice.  (Well that's just f'in great, isn't it?) I asked the oldest when hers was and guess what? It was the night before my birthday, you know, my birthday the day that the oldest blew up and told me she hated me out of nowhere? Yeah, that day. I pointed that out to her (the oldest) and I could see she was stunned. She doesn't believe she has any issues regarding her bio mother.

Anyhow, CDQ and I had talked about her behavior towards others. She's totally in the pushing people away phase before they can hurt her.  She keeps saying she doesn't want to be around people and doesn't like people but her actions aren't saying that. Her actions are saying that she is hurting because she wants to be a part of it and she doesn't know how.

I've likened it to the fact that she is seems to be stuck in the terrible twos stage mentally. She tantrums and gets angry when people don't do what she wants just like a toddler who doesn't get the toy they want or whatnot.

I told the other kids that we were going to talk about the way CDQ makes them feel but we aren't going to use mean words or faces. We aren't going to attack her, we are just going to talk to her and let her know.

Well holy hell, I had no idea what she had done to them. I mean, I knew she had pushed the boy onto a barrel cactus in the past because he was in line to get in the car ahead of her and she wanted to get in first. I had heard about how she laughed when he got up with needles embedded in his stomach and was screaming...he was 2.  That I heard from MY youngest sister.

My other sister had also told me about how she caught CDQ trying to force Poufy and my nephew (her son) to kiss and touch each other.  I don't know if she succeeded only they know. I don't know if my sister would ever tell me the truth to that extent, like if something did happen. I think she would choose to keep it a secret and pretend it never happened.

So I kind of expected some things to be bad.  So yeah, she bites them, she puts her fist up to her face to intimidate them, she yells at them, she flips them off, she's touched some of them, etc... those are the things since they've moved here. Before that, it was worse. Most couldn't say for themselves. One thing they all had to share was how CDQ stabbed SS in the back with a knife.  Even the oldest was traumatized by that.

She said they were unloading the dishwasher somewhere and CDQ wanted to put something away that SS had. She tried to take it from her and SS refused and turned to put it away and that's when CDQ grabbed a knife from the dishwasher and stabbed her. The oldest said she started screaming because blood was gushing out of SS. No one took SS to the ER, no one reprimanded CDQ. I guess they all just swept it under the rug.

This gave me insight as to why SS was so unwilling to stand up for herself and challenge anything. I had no idea.

A long time ago, their bio mother tried to slice my wrist with a butter knife because someone had said something about her and I thought it was funny and laughed. She was that mad about it and she just flipped like a switch.

After they poured out their abuses. I explained to CDQ that I hadn't realized she had treated them so badly. I told her I was worried because she was abusing them and I asked her if she wanted to be like the people who have abused her.  She didn't answer me.

I asked the kids if they had ever had a chance to see the real CDQ. The one that likes to read and play etc... they said they had. I said if that CDQ wanted to hang out with you guys would you be open to that?

At first they were saying no, until Poufy hit it on the head. She said as long as CDQ wasn't mean or didn't hurt them, they liked including her. But she always gets mad.

Of course, CDQ was all about how she wanted to be alone and didn't want to play with them anyway.

I keep trying to make her understand that she can feel that way today but who knows when that will change. I keep trying to tell her she is 10 right now and when she is 15 she will be different and when she's 23 she'll be even more different.  This is just how she feels for now.

So I told her...when you guys are older, don't you want to be at their weddings? Don't you want to meet your nieces and nephews and be part of all that.

She was adamant that she did and she couldn't wait to be an Aunt.  I asked her if she thought that her siblings would let her around their children if they thought she was going to do the same thing to their children that she did to them.

That made her think.

I told her that they just opened the door for her. They said they were willing to give her another chance. I explained to her that the ball was in her court to change things. I told her she was the only one who could change it.

So what does she do?

She farts and says "Oh, that smells good! That's the best I've ever farted!" and she starts taking deep breaths.

I looked at the kids and it was like a sea of disbelief. I explained to them that it was too much for her to handle right now and that's why she's doing this.

I turned to her and told her, fine, if she wanted to be left alone I'd see what I could do. But she wasn't going to hurt anyone anymore.