PTSD Meets the Law

Tuesday a police officer stopped by. I opened the door before he rang the bell, and the exchange (regarding a tenant) took about four seconds. Three of the four children didn't even know he was there. Guess which child was in the kitchen with me? Yep, you guessed it: Princess. The one who spent her first three years watching people she knew fight with and be escorted out in handcuffs by police. So of course she assumed he had come to "take Daddy to jail." I told her that was not why he was there, I went through the whole "police are here to make sure grown-ups are following grown-up rules and behaving safely" spiel. No dice. She never mentioned another word about it, of course, and at first I foolishly thought she wasn't thinking about it.

Tuesday night she flooded her bed. This sort of thing tends to happen when a person is not using the toilet, which she wasn't. She didn't take care of it- likely thinking I wouldn't notice, so she had some laundry to do after school. She whined. She fussed. She pretended she didn't know how to do it. I didn't buy it, so she tantrumed. She missed dance class. Finally she decided she'd rather join us for my delicious moo shoo pork than enjoy a cheese sandwich alone.

Thursday afternoon the school called. I was told Princess came to the office because her tooth hurt. I asked what happened right BEFORE she said her tooth hurt. The secretary said, "well, I don't really know; there's a sub today." Ahhh. I asked to speak to Princess. "Hi Princess!" "Hi." "What would you like me to do for your tooth?" "I don't know." "Oh. Well, what do you think I WILL do for your tooth?" "I don't know." "Oh. Well, what would you like to do right now?" I want to go back to class." "Huh. So, you told your sub your tooth really really hurts, and you told the office your tooth really really hurts, and now you want to go back to class. " "Yes." "Uh, ok. I'll see you at home! I love you."

An hour later, Princesses language therapist called to tell me that Princess FLIPPED OUT because she left a shoe at home. Princess came home and told me what a wonderful day she had and how much she loved the sub. Hmmm.

Friday sounded like this: "whine whine whine fuss fuss (poke poke poke) fuss whine fuss."

See how much better it's getting!