He broke the tv!!!

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Registered: 03-27-2003
He broke the tv!!!
3
Sun, 05-27-2007 - 12:01pm

I'm actually quite proud of myself. I'm more disappointed in Sam than angry with him.

Yesterday was a strange day. It started out with us deciding not to travel to FL this summer to visit my family. My sis just had a new baby and DH has a vacation coming up. We do have the cash for plane ticket, but we're also planning on buying the apt. house we live in and could use that money for closing costs...etc.

Sam had swimming lessons which didn't go so well. I could tell he was "off" this morn. Jumpy, fidgetty...etc. I tried giving him lots of deep pressure..etc before class. DH usually takes him but stayed home yesterday to rake up the yard in prep for reseeding the bare spots so we have a nicer lawn for Sam's b'day coming up. Sam was very sensitive, not trying very hard, giving up. I know he feels like he's doing alot, but he tends to just give up when he's in this kind of mood and pushing him doesn't really help. His teacher is very loud, silly and funny, but he just wasn't getting through to Sam yesterday. Sam was very timid, didn't want to get his head wet at all or even try swimming with out the floaty barbells they use. I had to tell the teacher to back off, because Sam was going to lose it. He went easier on Sam and Sam kept it together the rest of the lesson. There was only one other kid there today and Sam got most of the attention of the teacher. We haven't told the teacher yet of Sam's ASD. It's on his membership form...etc. and the swim director knows. Sam did fine during winter break and DH says he's been very flexible at other lessons so we didn't feel it was necessary. But I told the teacher yesterday and explained that he was just having a bad day. That pushing him too far will just make him shut down and it's best to just review on days like yesterday. He was very understanding. He was trying so hard and being so patient with Sam and Sam was really trying to keep it together the whole time. Sigh....it was really hard to watch. Part if me wanted to just grab Sam and get out of there, but I knew that it would just reinforce the avoidance behaviors.

I had to leave for work at 230 and right about that time my mom called to tell me that they found a tumor on my 1 day old nephew's kidney!!!! It could be 1 of 2 kinds of cancer, both of which only develop in in utero. He'll have to have surgery and chemo. They're not doing anything until after the holiday weekend. They all seemed surprised that it didn't get caught on the ultrasound. So there's going to be some serious scrutiny of the ultrasounds and if they see anything my BIL will likely be on the war path and ready to sue for malpractice. So we decided that we *will* be going to FL for vacation despite the cost.

Sam asked to play his Star Wars light saber game, which had been put away for several months right as I was leaving for work. DH and I knew that it would probably end badly (which is why it was put away.) But Sam assured us that he was going to try really hard to keep it together. We had to at least give him a chance....When I came home from work at nearly midnight, I found out that Samthrew the light saber at our LCD tv and broke it! Sam got frustrated, DH prompted him to take a deep breath and stay calm, Sam did and then threw the light saber and it hit the tv. It cracked something inside of it, it's all funny when it's turned on.

We have an extended warranty on it. It might cover it, it might not. We will not replace it with an equivalent because we don't have the money and I don't want to chance this happening again. Sam has obviously lost tv time (since it's pretty unwatchable) and all other screen time priveledges until his bday (June 9th.) We also will not be bringing him to see Pirates of the Caribbean and DH has taken away his LEgos and Bionciles until his bday as well. He will have to pay us back if we have to replace the tv. The game is going to the Salvation Army and I'm considering taking away his other plug and plays as well. Right now I just want to take everything away. TV time is sometimes his only down time and the only time we get a break from Sam and the 2 year old fighting....sigh. Sam is already asking to go somewhere so he can watch tv. I know he wasn't thinking and a similar thing could have happened with an NT kid. But it's tough when Sam doesn't connect us saying, "no tv today" with what happened yesterday. "There is no tv!!!!" LOL "You broke the tv, remember!?!?"

I hope today is more uneventful.....

Chrystee

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Registered: 03-20-2003
Mon, 05-28-2007 - 10:39pm

Chrystee,


I'm curious to see what you did, and how long you survived without a TV!!!

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Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 05-29-2007 - 11:10am

Well I totally misunderstood something DH told me. He didn't actually remove tv time. He thought allowing him to watch the broken tv would be a kind of logical consequence. So we had a bit of a row over that one....not one of my best moments.

So Sam lost tv for the weekend. But is now allowed *one* show a day.....that's it until the tv is repaired/replaced. It would have been a bit of a reward to take away tv time for so long and then let him watch it once we got a new one. Like, "thanks for breaking the tv....here's a new one!" We still will not take him to see Pirates and computer games, Bionicles and Legoes are in time out until his Bday.

It is more viewable than I thought acutally. The digital "crack" is in the bottom right corner and most of the screen is clear. The actual screen isn't cracked; you can't tell there's anything wrong until it's on. The crystals inside that make the pixels are broken so there's a multi-colored, rainbow spider web crack when you turn it on with some lines running up to the top. It's kinda pretty, like an abstact-expressionist painting or aura borealis......it makes DH a bit nauseous ;) We've been watching at night. The crack doesn't seem to bother the kids which totally urks me!

Chrystee

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Registered: 04-28-2007
Tue, 05-29-2007 - 9:50pm

Gee, I thought Star Wars just sent Liam over the edge. (((HUgs)))

Dee

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