On a good day, parenting will test the integrity of your character. On a bad day, parenting will test your will to live. Parenting children with trauma histories will cause you to test the integrity of everything and everyone you thought you knew, for the rest of your life.
~J. Skrobisz

Monday, December 5, 2011

An unwrapped "present"

Merry Christmas, it's a girl. She'll be 12 on New Year's eve and she rejoins our humble abode on the 16th.

*sigh*

Round 293,641 and counting. *DING*

yes, yes, positive, negative, positive. *rolling eyes at self*

positive: she comes home on the last day of the fall semester so there's no need to put together an emergency homebound education plan for the last week of the semester as we originally thought.

positive: her IEP eligibility meeting on the 15th (how many have we done thus far? I've lost count) should SHOULD find her eligible for an IEP with OHI status and EBD classroom for the first 60 days in the spring semester to transition her slowly back to mainstream classes. I'm not holding my breath but yes, that would be a wonderful christmas present indeed.

negative: according to the staff in the phone conference this morning, she still has anger issues and difficulty finding ways to manage her anger in appropriate ways. She needs to work on her social skills and be praised when she only cries during tantrums as opposed to exhibiting self-harming, threatening or violent behaviors.

[aside]: anyone praised a child for a tantrum? 'cuz that just sounds ... odd to me. Just sayin'.

positive: she's so darn cute and she's lost weight now that she's off some of the meds and is managing moderately well on her current drug cocktail.

Oh, and ... *batting eyes demurely* I get to make friends with one more new IFI team!!!!

3 comments:

GB's Mom said...

Remember, even the Grinch eventually turns the corner. You are important, loved, and never alone.

kisekileia said...

With the thing about praising her, do you think she is actually making an effort to just cry during tantrums instead of doing the worse stuff? And does she respond to positive reinforcement? Because if crying during tantrums instead of being threatening and violent is something that she has to make an effort to do, then it's something worth praising her for. Just because something seems basic to you doesn't mean it is basic for her.

That being said, if she doesn't actually care about positive reinforcement and she'll just use it as an excuse to claim her behaviour is okay when it isn't, that's a different situation.

Cyndi said...

It is amazing, our little girls are growing up quickly and actually they have childhoods with so much mental illness going on that they are missing the majority of the great things about just being kids, and we can not do a thing about it. I wish you the best with that Christmas gift of yours. I hope she doesn`t make things to crazy for all of the rest of you.