Sunday, April 11, 2010

Welcome to Sunday Morning

The kids are getting ready and squabbling around me as I sit at the computer attempting to avoid getting directly involved as it really never seems to help when they are this age. I offer my verbal input but it doesn't usually make much difference... but at least I feel like I'm doing some parenting. And right now their "Mom, Tony said this" and "Mom, Dominyk did this" statements really aren't intended to get any response.

Today we are off to church, minus a couple adult kids who apparently care very little about what we expect, and then to the International Festival at the high school to have some ethnic food for lunch and watch Sadie dance. It is a very well done event that many of the international students from the university participate in and our kids enjoy it. Maybe I"ll actually remember my camera.

While our lives carry some stress, I continue to be relieved that we are passed uncontrollable rages and dangerous behavior. The hours like Cindy described this morning are vivid memories for us and they really take life to an unbearably stressful place. Here we have stressors -- the financial pressure, the emotions of being continuously taken advantage of, the ingratitude, the disrespect, the foul language, the continual fighting between siblings, etc. -- but it is all now at a level when I'm not wondering continuously if someone is going to get killed.

So today I just have to be stressed about non-life-threatening things. LIke info I just found out about from Bart that our kids stole from one of our parishiners. However you spell it.

3 comments:

cshellz said...

how absolutely frustrating. I had one steal from my mom when we were visiting for dinner. Yeah my mom 'gets' them, but it was still an embarrassing, frustrating, head-banging moment.. It just seems so much worse than 'just' stealing from me, why I don't know.

GB's Mom said...

One of mine went through a period where he stole from everybody and lied about it with a straight face. It is frustrating and I never figured out what a good response would be. Eventually, I just put all family and friends on notice not to let him in their house and we stayed out of the house until he was safely in jail- safely for us anyway.

Suzy said...

I am curious how you differentiate punishment for those who have FASD and those who don't, when both participate in the crime. And do the ones who don't have brain disorders resent the other's punishment (which I am assuming is less since they won't get it anyway)?