Thought I'd write this one up. In a day or so, it will have melded with all the other meltdowns. After the event, it's hard to remember what happened or what caused it, so....
Back Story: A has wanted her ears pierced for ages. We have resisted it, given the pain in the arse school rules are on earrings and PE, but increasingly all her peers have them and she had even started saving up for it (quite unlike her usual spendthrift self). This summer, as she pointed out, would be a good time to get it done as it gives us the 6 week holiday for them to heal before school starts again. I had made stipulations about behaviour and room tidying and she's spent the first week of the holidays trying to be good.
Suddenly, M decides she wants her ears pierced as well, having never previously shown any interest in it being done. A major bout of room-tidying yesterday resulted in three bin-bags of discarded art work to go to the tip. A, in the meantime, is still trying to tidy her (much smaller) room, but has the spatial awareness and enthusiasm of a three-toed sloth, so it's not been going well.
M, who has already baked cookies this morning (without clearing the mess afterwards), is now bored and wants her sister to record a song on Garage Band; her sister refuses (rightly guessing what my reaction would be), at which point M.....
Hits her sister repeatedly with a bag
Hits me as I try to restrain her from hitting her sister
Throws a shoe at the light fitting
Slams her door so hard that more of the paint falls off
Throws stuff around her previously tidy room
Chases her sister round the house until she locks herself in the bathroom, at which point M hammers on the door, resulting in petrified screams coming from A.
Announces that she won't be going to visit her grandparents/aunt/cousin next week, and that even if she did she would be rude to them; she also won't be going to her new school at all unless they let her in for September and would rather be "in a mental home"
She then retreats to her room, and all is quiet.... until she emerges and throws a toy at the back of my head. A bear with a bean-bag heating pad in it which therefore has quite a bit of weight. That hurts when it hits you unexpectedly from behind.
5 minutes later, a neighbour knocks at the door asking to play. As if a switch has been thrown, she is all sweetness and light, "Sorry, mum!" and "Can I play out?"
Another meltdown ends.
This is just one of hundreds of episodes we get from her. They arise from seemingly nothing, cause untold upset and can then be gone just as quickly. You can hardly ever anticipate them and can't always diffuse them. We just have to react as best we can.
I wonder if Ian Duncan Smith gets punched and has heavy objects thrown at him as part of his job? Does he have to worry about other family members being at risk? Does he know what a weighted stuffed toy does to the back of your neck when thrown with force?
I thought not.
