The Mom Taxi

We’ve been pretty busy the past week or so and one thing that has taken up some time is well, is managing, M’s behaviors and trying to tease out what is ‘normal’ for her age and what is a product of her previous environment and trying to manage the two.

She has been on two medications that have helped IMMENSELY with her behaviors. Early on when she moved in we took her to Mary Bridge and I honestly don’t recall who recommended we take her there or why, but we are SO glad we did! She sees someone at their Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics office. During our last visit over the summer her provider offered that we might need to up her dose of Vyvanse, which, according to some is one of the latest ADD/ADHD new cocktails of drugs that helps with focusing and managing impulsivity. Doctors don’t really know why stimulants work yet (so we’ve been told) because if you think about it, if you have someone who is hyperactive you’d think that if you gave them a stimulant, it would worsen their hyperactivity, when in actuality, it does the opposite. Regardless of the origins of Vyvanse, we can see a huge difference in M’s behaviors when she is on it and more importantly, she expresses it makes her be able to focus better and thereby participate more appropriately in school increasing her confidence in general. The other medication that helps is Prozac and this taken once per day helps her manage her anger and emotions. The combination of the two, at least in our house hold, is the perfect marriage of medicinals.

What medicine doesn’t ‘cure’ we work to change through a combo of cognitive behavior management, suggestions from her butt-kicking therapist and things we think of or things others we know have tried. Recently, in therapy, we talked about how lately we’ve had a lot of arguing on M’s part in the morning for one reason or another. My response was that if she wasn’t behaving or was being overly nasty in the mornings (I drive her to school), I would not be taking her to school (ok, so she LOVES-loves-LOVES school, and, yes, there are laws stating she HAS to go to school, but the idea of NOT going to school, for M, is horrific!!) and while she usually gets herself back into gear, once I drove around the block a few times and when I came back to get her she seemed to ‘get’ that she needed to behave. BUT, her therapist came up with a much better, far more effective idea. In fact, when she suggested the idea in front of M, M’s jaw-dropped, in horror. The suggestion was made that when M was being nasty, she’d need to pay me to take her to school – that is right, pay me because I would become the “Mom Taxi” and when you ride the taxi, you have to pay for the trip. She hasn’t had to take the “Mom Taxi” to school yet, but I am sure it will happen at some point.