When Nothing Seems to Work

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”   Thomas A. Edison

Rose will be 8 years old in a couple of days. She is beautiful, smart, outgoing, funny, and loving. She has been diagnosed with ADHD and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, for which she takes medication.

And she has started lying to and stealing from us.

Rose took my husband’s wallet to school. She used the money to buy pencils and junk food at lunch. The teacher saw her with the wallet and called us.

She went into her brother’s room and took a present that was for his friend. When we asked her about it, she said she had not touched it. But we found the box under her bed along with the contents. We took her in the room and showed her what we found, and she still lied about it. She told us that she did not touch it. She did not know how it got under her bed. When we told her that we would pull up the video from our home security system, she finally admitted she did take it.

She has also taken some of my jewelry. We now keep that locked up.

Each time we catch her we do what we can to prevent it from happening again.

My husband and I have talked to her, taken away privileges, taken away all the toys, early bedtime, and made her pay for what she took by doing chores to earn money. The list goes on and on. We have tried different kinds of therapy, but nothing has worked.

We are at the point where we want to pull our hair out (but my husband is bald). We keep reading, asking for help, and researching everything we can.

My goal in sharing this is to let other parents know that sometimes the answers don’t come easily or at all. We just have to keep trying and doing our best. That’s what my husband and I do as we face each new day. We understand we don’t have the answers, but we must keep searching until we find them.

Having a strong family support system, especially one that includes connecting with other parents and sharing information and ideas can make a huge difference.