Question RE child tantrums & the law...
Mums, I am a 28 year old mum of 2 girls (5&3). We have a beautiful life, we work very hard and are trying so hard to raise lovely children.
My 5 year old is stubborn (I wonder where she got that from lol) but we can handle that. My 3 year old is just a whole different ball game.
She throws the most amazing tantrums, she kicks walls, hits things, is so angry all the time, she tells, screams until she has almost lost her voice. She only does this at home. Out and about she seems distracted enough.
She is highly affected by preservatives and sugar, so I cook 90% of things from scratch.
I'm a good mum, but tonight while sending her to time out she lost her nanas, screamed the neighborhood down and kicking everything in sight.
I'm sure the whole suburb heard her (Windows and doors were open as its a beautiful day) and all I could think was "the police will show up one day because someone will call them because they will think we are hurting this child". I just feel defeated. And terrified that it will happen.
My kids get a smack on the bum occasionally but never, ever, mistreated in any way.
I just want to cry.
Has this ever happened to anyone, the neighborhood calling the cops on you from your child's tantrums?
Am I alone here? Maybe I'm just being stupid.
I just feel so low right now. And so alone.
5 Replies
I can't answer your question but know you're not alone. My 3yr old doesn't sound as bad but I often wonder what the neighbours think and wonder if someone will come knocking one day :-/
I work with children who throw mega Wobblies! Chair throwing, screaming, head banging. Never ever ever have I had a family have the cops turn up. They have all joked that they wait for the cops to turn up, but it's never happened.
*waves from the future* they didnt call the cops but I did have to deal with DHS not due to her tantrums but other stuff and the whole while I was terrified her tantrums would be an issue
*hug* you are not alone
http://www.123magic.com this DVD was a great help, she is diagnosed and treated now and I can finally breathe you will get through this there are more than just us out there dealing with this
I've had the cops around twice for my kids
First time, 5 year old wanted to use the toilet, but the light was off, I was sitting in the lounge room breastfeeding, he was at the other end of the house screaming blue murder.
I was calling out to him to just flick the light switch.
Hours later I was stunned to find cops at the door asking if I was safe, neighbours had called in a domestic dispute.
Told them only incident that day was my son loosing it because light was turned off in toilet, my husband has been at work at all day, kids are autistic, no you can't see them, they're all fast asleep now it's nearly midnight and this was 6 hours ago
They left and never heard a word on it after.
This year, my 7 yo son was screaming in the back yard as cops walked past (we live on a Main Street now) they knocked on the door to see if we were safe as they heard "blood curdling screams"
Explained my kids are autistic and they just scream a lot.
They went to leave without checking further, but I asked them to talk to the kids for a minute about why they came, which they were happy to do, my son, who's obsessed with the police force, was over the moon that they came to "visit" him, still to this day talks about it and still cannot connect that it wasn't a social visit, they thought he was being hurt.
They chatted about why screaming scares people, then showed the kids the car, turned the lights on for them etc, and that was it.
I'm a single mum of 5, 3 have been diagnosed with autism, my 3 year old daughter is currently being assessed.
I initially had my eldest assessed when I cut out preservatives etc from diet, tried all the parenting tricks I could find from reputable experts (Sears etc) and what worked for most kids just wasn't working for him.
I think when you've tried everything you can, and it's still hard, it's time to look a bit deeper, could be sensory issues or anything
But yes, I hear you, I'm scared all the time that cops will come work, or dhs will turn up, but all I can do is explain the situation and the worst that will ever happen I guess is I may get access to more help if it ever comes to that
A friend of mine had a neighbour call the cops on her when her daughter had a huge tantrum over not wanting to do as she was told. The cops came clapped eyes on the kids she explained what had happened and they were satisfied with that and left. They could see the kids were fine and understand kids throw tantrums.