20 Minutes Home and Everyone is Crying.

Yesterday after school, Liam came home and looked at flowers and bees as we walked up the driveway. As soon as he stepped foot in the house he started to breathe short while stomping his feet because he saw Adrian was home watching TV on the couch. As I pulled his shoes off he started to cry and get angry about anything that was done or said. He choked past his tears and said he wanted a drink and crackers but his actions said the opposite. I went in the kitchen to get him his drink and crackers and he followed me in the kitchen, still crying. Adrian came in the kitchen and Liam screamed, stomped his feet and hid between the cabinet and my legs. I told Liam he needs to calm down before he gets his drink and crackers (I knew he would throw them on the floor in a fit), I talked to him calmly and said he needs to calm down and talk to me instead of crying and screaming. I walked away (acting like I was busy) so that he could have a moment, but that made his reaction worse, falling on the floor, slapping his face, kicking his feet. I decided to ignore it, if I confronted him it would only escalate and we would both get too emotional. So I left the room feeling like I don't know what to do, I don't know why I'm not used to this by now. Adrian is with Gwyn and has taken her outside to get away from the screams. It's been 10 minutes now and still Liam is screaming and crying and I'm at a loss for what to do. Adrian decided to put him on his padded floor in his room and turned to walk out and Liam pushed his humidifier, full of water, to the ground. By this time I'm crying (for some reason I let this get to me this time) and confused on how to handle this. We cleaned up the floor and took all the mats outside to dry and Liam is still crying and now Gwyn has started to get upset. 20 minutes has passed and now 3 of us are crying...Liam was put in time out for 9 minutes (3 times he refused to say sorry) and finally he says "I'm sorry to Mommy" so we take that as an apology even though he was avoiding the apology to Adrian, I just decided not to pick that fight at this time. So I tell him that since he spilled the water and got it all over his clothes that he needs to take a bath now, he starts to get upset again and I said in an assertive voice "Liam, you pushed over the humidifier and got water all over your clothes. You already said you're sorry and now we are going to take a bath and put on dry clothes." He calmed down and let me undress him. After the bath he talked about how he pushed the humidifier and was crying and then he went out and ate crackers, had a drink and acted like he was fine. He even talked to Adrian and was being silly with Adrian, like there was no issue at all just a couple minutes ago on how he didn't even want to see Daddy. The rest of the night was quiet and no conflicts until it was time to brush his teeth, then he cried and fell on the floor. After I handled that then he went to bed and yelled "Momma, Momma" for about 10 minutes then he gave up and went to bed.

I knew that these emotional outbursts after school would be back, he had such a normal time coming home from school for about 2 months (February, March) but the pattern is usually carefree "normal" days for 1-2 weeks and "emotionally troubled" days for 3-4 weeks. This time we had carefree "normal" days for 2 months, so now I believe we are on the emotionally troubled days for about 4 months now.

It's difficult to let my guard down when he is carefree because I know that a couple days he will have emotionally troubled days and I have to be prepared for those days, otherwise I'm thrown off and I don't handle situations correctly. I feel more pressure now because I'm trying to explain Liam's emotional breakdowns and ticks to Adrian, but sometimes I don't even know the answers. I feel like I'm constantly pleading Liam's case to Adrian so that Adrian doesn't have negative feelings towards Liam. I guess I'm trying hard to build good relationships between Liam and Adrian, Liam and Gwyn, and Liam and myself.

It's hard for me to be this honest because I know I'm making our "family business" public but it helps me deal with the situations and it's the truth.