Natural Consequences

My son is a challenge to say the least. He has been diagnosed with ADHD. I struggled for a long time with whether I should put him on medication or not. Finally his pediatrician convinced me to do it. What a difference! This last year for the most part, life has been a lot easier, except for my daughter has been acting out as well. I think her behavior is something else. Anyway, it took a little while to find just the right doseage. The main problem we would have is when the medicine would wear off. He would be twice as bad! And first thing in the morning is very difficult. Lately, it seems the medicine hasn't been working as well. He is arugmentative, loud, refusing to listen, talking all the time, etc. It was time to re-evaluate the medication thing. The doctor decided to put him on two different kinds of medicine. One is non-stimulant that last 24 hrs and to help him get through the times he's not on the other medication. The other medication is to help him get through the day. We started the new medicine on wed night. So far there is a slight change, not too much. Soon we will up the doseage and hopefully it will help. I just really want to help him be the best that he can be. He is such a smart and sweet kid, but we have a really hard time when he can't be calm and when he can't focus. Hopefully life will settle back down soon.

Because of all this, he has been having a problem in school and a lying a lot. He got busted lying last week by me and his teacher. Even after he was busted he still denied it and lied. He got grounded and his tv taken out of his room for just over a week. On Friday I let him go to the park to play with his friends. He was so excited because he wasn't able to do anything for a week. I told him to find a way to tell time and he had to be home at 5 pm. I told him he better not be late or he was going to be in trouble. 5 o'clock came and still he wasn't home. I started walking down to the park. It took me just over 5 minutes to get down there and I was fuming the whole way. His first time being able to play since being grounded and he's late. I'm almost to the park and I hear this kid crying and two kids come walking up the sidewalk towards me. One of them is my boy. He is crying holding his nose and I can see he's got blood running down his hands. There was another boy with him that was telling him to keep his nose pinched to stop it from bleeding.

It turns out, just as I was crossing the street to the park, he got hit on the side of his nose with a baseball. He now has a black eye and his nose is a little bit sore. If he had just come home when he was supposed to, it wouldn't have happened. I started out being really mad that he didn't follow the rules, but then I figured, his black eye and bloody nose were good enough punishment...natural consequences!