Controlled Chaos (continued)
by Tammy Copechal-Beach
It was a beautiful, warm, summer day. The kind of day that makes you want to be outside and feel the sun on your back. The smell of fresh cut grass was intoxicating. There was a warm, gentle breeze coming off the river that cooled the skin. It was the kind of day that's perfect for taking off your shoes, getting down in the dirt, and planting flowers. Kalee and I went out to the garden to get really messy. We had been planting flowers in the garden for about an hour when Kalee asked, “Mom, can I play with Sally?”
Sally lives four houses down.
“You don't want to stay and help me plant flowers anymore?” I replied.
“No, Sally has a new puppy. I want to play with it.”
“All right, but you stay there and don't go anywhere else, OK?” I told her.
“OK. Can I ride my bike?”
“Yes. Just stop at the intersection and look for cars.”
“It's OK, mom. They'll stop.”
“Ha-ha, not funny, little miss. Just stop at the intersection, OK?”
“OK, Mom.”
I watched her ride her bike to Sally's house and enter the yard, and then I went back to my gardening. About 45 minutes later, the phone rang. It was my friend Janet, who works at the gas station that is about a half-mile from my house, across railroad tracks and down a major road.
“Do you know where your daughter is?” Janet asked.
“She is supposed to be at Sally's house, but obviously she is not if you're calling and asking that question."
I got into my car and picked up Kalee and her bike. For fear of losing my temper, I kept my mouth shut during the two-minute ride back home. Kalee, however, did not.
“Mommy, aren't you proud of me? I buyed my own pop."
It took all the patience I could muster to not scream at her as I asked, “Didn't all the cars and trucks scare you?”
“No, Mommy, they would have stopped for me if I told them to."
According to bpkids.org, this is what is called a grandiose delusion. A grandiose delusion is when a person or child thinks he or she is invincible, has superhuman powers, and that the laws of nature do not apply to the person. It took everything in my power to not spank Kalee’s little bottom and send her to her room for the rest of her life. She was grounded to my side for the rest of the summer.
In the fall, she started kindergarten. I was hopeful that spending time at school would wear off some of her energy.
Kindergarten didn't get off to a good start. Our morning routine was a nightmare. When I went into Kalee's room to wake her up, she would pretend to be sleeping. When I would pick her up, she would let her little body go limp and force me to get her dressed. By the time this was all said and done, she would have missed the bus, which resulted in her staying home. I expressed my concerns to her pediatrician, who said it could just be simple separation anxiety, and she would grow out of it. I let her behaviors go until Christmas break. By this time, she had gotten a little better. She was at least getting up and dressing herself with little to no resistance. Getting her from the door to the car and then from the car into the school was a different story. I started to give her a 10-minute countdown so she would know when it was time to go.
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