Bad Mood’s like a virus…

It seems everyone is catching the foul mood going around…
No one is really clear about why they are grumpy, but they are.
Me? I’m taking lots of vitamin C and Zinc, that should do the trick

Blog Project 365-09 #184

The disguise.

So my grandson is an adult cleverly disguised as a 5 year old.
His Dad recently moved to California for School… the grandson is very, very angry about this. We talked about it some, but the anger didn’t blow over. We did “play therapy” games for him to get rid of his aggression, to no avail. We used child like analogies to explain things to him. We punished him for bad behavior while reassuring him that *he* was a good person… just needing to make better choices. Nothing worked.
Tonight, he was very, very aggravated at his step-brother. Unnaturally so.
I sat him down tonight I told him that I wasn’t going to “baby-talk” him… he had a big problem so I was going to talk to him like he is a big person.
I asked where all of the anger was coming from… who was he mad at.
He told me he was mad at his Dad.
I asked him how long he planned on being mad.
“Until he comes back” he responded.
I reminded him that he’s been in trouble a lot lately, and asked him how that was working out for him…
He thought he could handle being in trouble until he wasn’t mad anymore.
I let him know that it was OK to be mad, but he can’t take that anger out on those around him. That this behavior had to stop. Now.
That child is as stubborn as the day is long, and it is completely in him to hang onto that destructive anger until his Dad comes home for Christmas… and beyond.
I told him his Dad’s perspective and how hard it was for his Dad to do this, and he almost didn’t do the right thing because he didn’t want to move. I told him his Dad cried when he left. Grandson cried when I told him that.
Earlier today he gestured a hand across his throat… scarey thing, he said if he cut his head off, his mom would call his dad and he would come back… that scared the shit out of me.
Is there such thing as a suicidal 5 year old? Or is it just child logic mixed with magical thinking?
I told him that if he did that, his dad probably would come back… but that he wouldn’t be here any more… so that wouldn’t work. He agreed with my logic in that that probably wasn’t the best route.
Once he was able to see that it was difficult for everyone and that his dad didn’t just leave… but that it was a very difficult decision that he didn’t want to make…
The grandmonster declared that he wasn’t mad anymore and that the “old grandmonster” was back.
I promptly followed up with his Mom…

This seems too “teenager like” behavior for a little kid.
I’m blown away…

Blog Project 365-09 #183