Z gets up at the crack of dawn. After much work we have her trained not to bother us until 7 AM. This wasn’t a good solution. She wanted up earlier and we wanted to sleep later on weekends.
The last time we had her she mentioned in passing that she isn’t allowed to bother her mother until 8. I’m not sure if that’s true since we tend to be stricter but we decided to run with it.
Saturday night we discussed the new plan. She agreed but we knew she wasn’t paying attention. So Sunday morning when she appeared at 6:30 AM we knew this was going to be a test. I reminded her about the 8:00 plan. She appealed to her father who was playing dead. I got up and said, “Let me help you.” I escorted her out and shut the door. Let the stomping and crying ensue. I went back to bed.
Of course we weren’t sleeping through the temper tantrum in the hall. I don’t know if it is part of her disorder or not but she can’t be awake without having us awake too. The idea of playing in her room while we are sleeping is abhorrent to her. Then she started appealing to her dad again. “Daddy. Daddy. Daaaaadeeeeeeeeee!” He ignored her. We were talking to each other. She informed us that she could hear us talking so we might as well be talking to her. We ignored her. The “Daddy, Daddy” started again. She was inventive with varying the tone and rhythm. At one point she was chanting. I hope that it brought her inner peace.
After about 20 minutes of DaddyDaddyDaddy he reminded her of the 8:00 rule. She got to stomping again. By now her protests were background noise. I did hear her say, “I’m going to say this one more time and you have to answer.” I told him that it was a good thing for her that we were ignoring her or else she’d be in trouble for copping the attitude.
By now it was 7:30.
The SO: I have to go to the bathroom but she’s right outside the door.
Me: Go ahead and go out. Then come back to bed. Tell her it isn’t 8:00 yet and you’ll see her then.
Z yells some smart ass comment that I don’t remember
The SO raises his voice so Z can hear him: Are you needing a whupping?
Z, ever so sweetly: What was that Daddy? I couldn’t hear you!
The SO gets up to go to the bathroom. He opens the door and says, “Let me show you.”
She screamed. “Nooooooooo! Daddy, nooooo!” Like he was coming after her with a chain saw with murder on his mind. She ran into her room. I heard him say, “I knew you heard me.” He went to the bathroom and came back. He never even looked at her. She stayed in her room.
We didn’t hear another peep out of her. When we got up at 8 she was coloring in her room. She was content by herself. That’s good for her. We’ll see if she can do it again on her next weekend.
