Friday, November 27, 2009

Miss Little “Thinks-she’s-Independent”

With all that I love Ricki, and am so proud of her achievements, there are those moments and times that her behavior and attitude are downright frustrating. And it is this lack of predictability that is in many ways the most disabling part of her condition.
Ricki is generally “clean” (toilet-wise), and those rare occasions that she wets herself are invariably at home, not in public. (This shows that she cares, and makes a bigger effort outside.) Any clean-up she does herself, and usually I am not aware of any problem until I find the extra laundry waiting for me in the middle of the day. She has a harder time with bedwetting (we are a family of DEEP sleepers), partly due to her refusal to limit (or even cut down on) her drink intake in the evening. But she really takes care of all the cleanup and bathing on her own.
Last night I tried to reason with her not to have a full glass of fluid immediately before bedtime, but she refused. I made the mistake of trying to grab the drink from her, and we had a real fight. [Just as with ANY teen, you will find it VERY difficult to force them to do anything. You have to reason with them, give consequences, etc.]
Well, this morning Ricki was DIRTY when she awoke. Maybe she did it on purpose, because she was angry, I don’t know. But she did NOT have time to do the cleanup all by herself, or she would miss her ride to school, so I helped her. [And yes, I fell for the trap of giving her lots of negative attention, when I should have shut up. I have never claimed infallibility.....]
So what was her reaction to all this? When going down to meet the ride, I urged her to hurry, or she would miss it.
“Go upstairs, and I’ll go down.” Miss Little “Thinks-she’s-Independent” pride would not leave her alone. I guess she needed to prove to herself that she is “big” after all. Not surprising for a teen.....

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