Monday, October 27, 2008

3 X’s

Ricki came home today with 3 X’s on her behavior chart. Three X’s in and of themselves, being only about a fifth of her points, might not be so bad. A lot depends on what she DID to get the three X’s…..
Now, usually when that happens, Ricki tries to “doctor” the page up by ripping out the offending area, or making the whole sheet get “lost”. (Pretty smart, if you ask me. Why lose out on computer time -the “consequences”- if I can just maybe convince Mom that I was well-behaved.)
Today she had done none of these, and was complaining that she didn’t feel so good. But when I asked her where her behavior sheet was, she said, “I don’t want you to see it; you’ll be angry.” ** Now THAT statement had me worried. Had she assaulted someone? Their possessions? I went to check the sheet.
It turns out that Ricki came home with a temperature of 38.5 C, and the three X’s had been because she hadn’t done her work during the last two periods. The aid even though she hadn’t realized that Ricki was sick, had noted that she seemed a bit under the weather….
So I sat Ricki down. “Ricki, I will only be angry when you misbehave. When you are sick, and can’t work, that is not called misbehaving.”

She had actually been very well behaved today… was trying SO hard to be good and not just managing….Perhaps her temperature knocked all her ADHD belligerence out of her, poor thing…….

** I just want to add that when she said “You’ll be mad”, she was saying “You won’t let me watch Computer”, or at worse, I would yell at her. Nothing worse.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are such a good Mom. Hope she's feeling better by the time you read this. Barbara

Terri said...

Poor kid. Is it cold and flu season there too? Hope she is feeling better.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I am so sorry she is not feeling well. Hope things are better tomorrow!

rickismom said...

She is finally feeling better today!

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

"38.5 C"

Is that a fever?

that's good you explained to her the difference, shows your understanding.

Glad she's feeling better by now.

WheresMyAngels said...

My daughter Mercede is 18 and we just started a behavior chart with her. High school has been a horrible transition for her. She is doing things she hasn't done since early grade school and more. So far a chart is not helping her.

I'm loving reading your blog and learning about a different culture.