Today was a grey day, so after reading for a while (newspapers and birthday books) we settled down to watch some recorded TV. We were half way through the second Dispatches programme, when Ram started being silly with a large plastic coat-hanger. It was mildly annoying, but mostly I was worried that as he threw it through the air it would knock over my glass of water, so I asked him to either stop, or move else where.
I knew immediately that it was not going to work. He snapped that he wanted to watch the programme too, but didn't carry on with the coat-hanger throwing. He did however carry on being angry.
He then loaded up some Bionicle weapons that he has developed and shot me with them. It was when he got the larger weapons out and started aiming for me that I knew I had to act.
I paused the TV, and said, 'I can see that you are aiming these weapons at me, so you must be angry with me. Is it because I asked you to stop with the coat-hanger?' He thought for a moment, sat down, and said partly, but added that he just felt that things were not going right today.
I suggested that he was extra autistic this morning, almost ADHD, and maybe he needed to get rid of some energy. He brightened up and suggested that we go outside and bounce on the trampoline! I agreed, and then we both dived for the toilet! Not a good idea to bounce on a full bladder!
We then ran outside, only to find that it had just started raining! Ram was immediately furious, and not surprisingly. He already felt that the day was wrong, then just when we agreed on something to help, it went wrong again.
We got inside and he said that he wanted a punch bag so that he could kill something. I have a cut down duvet cover full of sheep's wool waiting to be spun, so I got that out and tied a rope around the top. Ram took down the trapeze and I put the makeshift punch bag and off Ram went!
He hit, kicked and punched the bag for 30 minutes! All the while I was able to potter around and tidy up, at the same time as watching him. After that he felt much better. He rested for a few minutes, then he started again. This time he tried different things, like sticks, jumping up in the air and kicking, and a length of chain.
He carried on for nearly an hour, until finally he had had enough. Now my happy chappy was relaxed enough to sit with me and watch Smart, followed by Blue Peter. Half way through Blue Peter he got restless again, so he got up and found my old winter motorcycle gloves, and used them as boxing gloves. Luckily having an open plan barn to live in he could do that and still watch Blue Peter.
I knew that he wasn't having a good day, and I could have handled the coat-hanger incident differently, but by thinking on my feet rather than getting angry at him, we have not only recovered the day, but had some with it.
Yes, even I have had a go!
No comments:
Post a Comment