Today has been a rough day to say the least. We were all disappointed that our plans to go out of town for the day fell through.
However, things only got worse as the day went on.
Gavin had, what I can only describe as MegaMeltdown. Every time this happens, I always find it to be worse than the previous meltdown, which is a scary trend.
What happened this afternoon was that Gavin was not being nice to his brothers and when they tried to get help from Lizze and I, Gavin tried to stop them. Lizze caught him red handed and immediately intervened, sending Gavin downstairs to me. She spoke with the boys and I spoke with Gavin.
We have to pick our battles with Gavin because any time he is disciplined, he melts down.
Today was no different.
I’m fact, this is probably the worst meltdown in recent memory. The whole reason he melted down was because he was held accountable for his actions.
The reason we opted into this battle was because under no circumstances should Gavin prevent his brothers from seeking us out for help. That is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
I wouldn’t let anyone prevent Gavin from seeking help and I certainly won’t permit Gavin doing that to his brothers.
That’s a huge safety issue.
The consequence was that Gavin would have a bowl of oatmeal, I stead of a hamburger, for dinner. He had fruit and vegetables as well, so nothing was actually withheld, just substituted. It’s the only thing that has a number bering on him.
Throughout this meltdown, you will see a few times where he stops the meltdown on a dime. He does this in order to wipe his nose, look at his leg and various other reasons. So we know that he can stop. He just wouldn’t stop.
The level of self-injury was much greater than usual. Most of this is actually for manipulation purposes and used as a means of trying to get what he wants or punish us for not giving it to him.
With that said, I also feel like he’s simply coming unglued and we very clearly need to intervene. The problem is what exactly are we supposed to do?
I don’t know what he needs and neither do the specialists.
No one really understands what is going on with him and so knowing what to do is even more evasive.
This is no way to live and I don’t think we can continue allowing this to go on.
Editors note:
Before I even finished this post, Gavin had his 2nd MegaMeltdown of the afternoon. He was playing with his brothers in the dining room, as I supervised. Gavin was repeating the same behavior that got him in trouble earlier this afternoon. He just doesn’t respect/understand his brothers boundaries and certainly isn’t learning from his mistakes.
PLEASE TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN. THIS IS NOT KID FRIENDLY.
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