I'm Baaack!

Wow, that was quite the hiatus!  I've decided to start blogging again to keep our friends and family up to date.  I have Facebook, but I don't post on there too often and this way I can elaborate more instead of a huge long post on Facebook.  So I'm just going to start fresh. So without further adieu, here is what has been going on recently with our family!

For those close to us, you know our 3 year old, Jasmine, is a handful.  Yes, she is a threenager, but for a while there I was convinced she had ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder).  I KNEW she was acting out just to push my buttons.  I was going CRAZY!!!  Tony kept telling me she was just being 3, but I wasn't buyin' it.  My relationship with my daughter was getting toxic.  I didn't hate her, but most days I didn't like her.  I yelled all the time, I was stressed, and honestly, I've had 2 major breakdowns (one to the point that Tony had to come home from an open house because I could not move).  This quote from The Explosive Child pretty much sums up how I was feeling, my daughter "has caused me to act in ways in which I never thought myself capable.  I'm emotionally spent.  I can't keep living like this."  Something had to change.

So I asked on our neighborhood Facebook page for recommendations for child therapists that work with ODD.  A fabulous lady, Sarah Green, commented that she runs Heartlight Services.  She offers free consultations so I thought let's give it a try.  Jasmine and I met her and her immediate response was that Jasmine doesn't have ODD, but she's actually just very sensitive.  She named a few characteristics of sensitive kids and it was basically exactly Jasmine's personality.  After 10 minutes with her, I knew Sarah could help us.  She was going to be out of the country for more training, so we had to wait a couple weeks before we could do an IN HOME parent coaching session.  She gave me the name of a book to read, The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis, to start reading until our session.  I read it and another book a friend suggested, The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene. Currently I am reading another book, Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.  With implementing parenting methods from each of these books, I am happy to report my relationship with Jasmine is 1000% percent better.  Is it perfect?  Not by a long shot.  There are times I yell and honestly even times when I still spank, but I am improving, and I understand my daughter better.  Understanding why she behaves the way she does has drastically helped me.  So for those of you who have a strong willed, spirited, explosive or whatever adjective you want to use child, I HIGHLY recommend these books and if you live in the area, call Sarah.  If I hadn't met her, I could still be emotionally frenzied and at my wits end.  But now I am calmer.  Which for my high strung self, says a lot.  Until next time!