mornings and nights with Jon | ADHD Information

I have developed an action plan for mornings and nights with Jon. These are the 'interesting' times when meds have worn off and self control (parent's, also) is at low ebb:

At night, I stay up until Jon is sleeping. Sometimes that means staying up until 2am or so. At this point of time, if I remember to give Jon benedryl and a melatonin an hour before bedtime he will fall asleep most of the time. I have told the doctor about the benedryl and have not been told not to give it to him especially since he has allergies that act up at night and make him snore and snort.

Before I go to sleep, I put my heavy plastic chain and combination lock around the doors of the refridge (we have the side by side and so this is possible) and lock the pantry. (I put a bedroom lock on the door inside out). This means that Jon can't empty out the refridge and pantry while I am asleep.

Most nights this works.

In the morning, I make breakfast for everyone. No one is allowed to eat until they are dressed and the room can be walked through. After breakfast they finish cleaning their bedrooms and wash up and straighten the bathroom. If screaming starts I hand the culprit a dampened rag and they start cleaning baseboards (we have the cleanest baseboards in Florida). Something about having a chore to do settles them down. If baseboards are clean, they take a magic eraser and clean marks off walls, or have a rag and squirt bottle and clean the floor tiles.

So far our mornings are pretty good and so are the evenings. Only, this morning, Jon decided to cook the sausage and eggs himself. My husband forgot to relock the refridgerator when he left this morning very early. So Jon took olive oil, filled a frying pan and fried sausages. When they came running into my room shrieking I knew what they had doen from the smell. They had put the stove on high and my other 9 y/o took the pan with splattering oil and put it on the counter. Thank goodness no one was hurt!!!

Glad to hear no one was hurt, too.   You are awesome.  Sounds like you have a real good plan in place. 

My DS is older, different situation, but I have a plan and have to "lock things up/hide things" here at home (direct result of his behaviors and his reluctance to follow the rules).

You get a star today for being a great mom!!! 

Anyway, enjoy the weekend with your family.  Also, in time, practice makes perfect for those cooking skills and you might wake up to breakfast in bed someday, courtesy of Jon; who knows, maybe along with a vase with your favorite flowers! 

Hi Hanginindere.  Jon loves to pick me flowers. Two days ago he brought me a lovely bouquet of oleander, which unfortunately, our 1 lb puppy got hold of. Boy, was she sick sick sick. This translated into a session of plants and flowers poisonous and not. Plus a Florida Field Guide with pictures. Ahhh- we can learn from everything!

 

cheesehead: who ever figures out that one will be a millionaire in no time! Did I ever post that one night Jon took my husband's handcuffs and cuffed his leg to his arm? I don't have a key and called my husband to ask what to do. (he is a state trooper) Boy- it was so tempting to leave jon like that until my husband returned home. I was told where the spare key was and had to unlock him.....

I have now been up all night since husband didn't come home till 3am after working almost 24hrs straight. Jon is up, my other 9 y/o is up and I am boiling eggs for breakfast. what a day this is going to be!

[QUOTE=randyjim] Ahhh- we can learn from everything![/QUOTE]

Of course.   Hey, I'm old, and I still learn something new every day.

Speaking of poisonous plants and flowers -- I have always heard poinsettia leaves are poisonous, so, in the past, I have kept those plants up and away from pets and kids.  Then last year at a Christmastime gathering, one of our friends told me that is wrong -- the leaves are not poisonous - ? 

You amaze me. I think you have a good plan for your situation. Hope things go well in future.

You make me feel like I am not alone.  My son Tristan is unbearable when he is unmedicated!  At night as the meds wear off he turns into a demon.  The mornings are worse.  I have asked the doctor about putting the patch on him half way through the night so we don't wake up the way we do.  He is usually up at about 4 am and I am sorry to say that my patience at 4am is slim to none.  So I don't take well to the hitting, touching and the other day he bite me  He makes howling noises, etc until the meds kick in.   You can actually hear them kick in.  The noises stop and the commotion slows and the house returns to the dull roar it was prior to him waking up.

Don't get me wrong I don't want to over medicate him, but like I said my patience at 4 am is not what it is at 8am.  If there was just something I could do so that he wouldn't wake up a bear?