Spring Break

Spring break is not a great time parents of bipolar teens. It is a nightmare, if constant stimulation or instant gradification is not given then there is a bunch of caos. Plus having to find my son something constuctive to do during the day with adult supervision while I am at work, so nothing in the house to be destroyed, set on fire, or broken. ( Thankfully I have my son in a treatment program from 4pm to 8pm) But that leaves 7am to 4 open.

So far the first part of spring break, my son wants constant attention, even when drinking a class of water he makes a big production out of it and will thow the glass on the floor and complain there was nothing to do. I suggest he clean his room. (His room is like a wall to wall wearhouse of old toys,broken toys, papers, legos, hot wheels and music but since they all have memories attached them, he refuses to throw things away or clean, I am saving this battle for another day). Cleaning his room was out of the questions he has been all about going to Best Buy to buy software for a computer that doen't have enough memory for the graphics he wants to do, then when told "no" this leads to unrealistic reasons as to why I needed to leave work early and take him to the store. I called my boyfriend who happens to be not working right now and asked him if he could watch my son until his bus came to pick hm up from day treatment. Thankfully this will eliminate the every 15 minute calls asking me to run him here or there. ( I also called my son's therapist and told her that in tonights group, my son needs to work on taking no for answer and constructive entertainment that doesn't envolve breaking things or threatning to break things)This evening I am sure will be fun. Don't get me wrong I love my son and all his imperfections, it is just he can be overwheling at times.

I know last night he was fairly calm other than the fact he lets me know each and everyday he how I am ruining his life by having to go to therapy and group 4 days a week. My response is the same each and everyday, I tell him , " You may feel that this is ruining your life now, but in the end you will know that I love you sooo much, I want you to be able to have the coping skills needed in case I am not around." His reply is usually "Yeah whatever." But he knows deep down I am right. I know the constant scheduling of appointments gets to him, but he has made wonderful improvements over the last 3 months. Plus as we completed a goal that is set for him, he earns time with friends, activites he wants to do or participate in and when he takes no for answer without arguing, he gets to play his playstation for an hour. So I'll see what tonight brings.