Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

I have previously discussed tantrums - if you’d like to read up on my post check it out here:  The Dreaded Autism Tantrum.  Today I am going to revisit that topic but the subject is my son, not my daughter.  My son will be six in a few weeks and has comorbid diagnoses of ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome.  On Friday night we went for an evening/night hike with my dad, sister, and nephews.  My dad is a member of the search and rescue team for the mountains we went into so we were in good hands.  We had a lot of fun - got rained on, played with millipedes and frogs (well me, not Alexander hehe), and got a great workout.

When we get back to my parent’s house and get in our car to go home (we live 3.5 miles away) my son quickly asserts “I am not getting a shower.”  I kindly let him know that he is getting a shower and explain to him that we were rained on, we were sweaty (100% humidity), we were dirty, and we both absolutely needed a shower.  He reiterated that he was not getting a shower.  I didn’t bother arguing with him as it was a moot point.  The battle began when we drove into the garage.  Alexander refused to exit from the vehicle.  I closed the garage door and then went into the laundry room (right off of the garage).  I laid the door against the door frame but did not click it close so I could listen to Alexander.  When the garage light went off he screamed so I quickly went out there and he decided to get into the car.  Holy heck the tantrum of all tantrums began.

 He immediately started screaming - not words, just noises.  I asked him to not scream because daddy and his sister were asleep.  He responded with a louder scream, again not words just noises.  This woke up my husband who came out and helped me undress Alexander.  Alexander is a wee little guy, tipping the scales at a whopping 36lbs (he’s 46″ tall) but wow did he have some power in him.  He was kicking, punching, screaming and then suddenly he said his first words “I’m going to kick your butt.”  My husband looked at me and we both tried to stifle a giggle - I don’t think either of us have ever seen Alexander this mad.  He was in total meltdown mode. 

We finally got his clothes off and I started walking with him down the hallway and then he started in on me - punching me, slapping me, kicking me, etc.  I ignored it and made sure the water temperature in the shower was appropriate.  So I put Alexander in the shower and he yells “I’ll do it myself!” and then closes the curtain and starts punching me through the curtain.  I step around the corner and not 20 seconds later he starts to get out.  I was OK with that because he at least got a rinse off but he had tons of shampoo in his hair.  I told him that but he was not going to let me rinse it out.  I told him he could just lean his head over the tub and I’d pour water on it with our cup to get it out - nope, not gonna happen.  Well I managed to get him in position, turn the water on, and fill up the cup before he turned the water off.  I poured it over his head and got the shampoo out which evidently made Alexander even more mad.

At this point Alexander decides to attack the shower.  He grabs the handle and yells “I’m going to break this” and proceeds to tug at it to try to break it.  I took his hands up and picked him up and my husband stepped in with the towel.  Alexander demanded to go to bed wet and I said that was fine so we let him go.  He runs into his room, gets on his undies, and then wants us to tuck him in.  BAM - tantrum is instantly over.  It was like he flipped a switch.

I feel bad about making him take the shower but it was something that really needed to be done in my opinion.  We were so sweaty it was disgusting - our clothes and hair were completely soaked.  Alexander seems to have moved on from the moment, now I need to do the same.