Posting the Down
Just to put down *something* - a second of my children has been returned to "the system" via the Children's Aid Society. This has been coming for a while - Sir Goobs did not adjust to the move at all, utterly refused to accept that we'd left Strathroy, and demanded to be returned there at every chance. He told us many times that he would be returning there on or before his 16th birthday, when he gained a fuller say as to where he could live, However, he'd also begun to really push our buttons, especially mine. I mean, I can swear like a dockworker at times, but generally at inanimate f******g objects (bonus points for whoever gets the reference!). I don't take well to being sworn at, and no matter how many times he was told that his language was unacceptable, he just continued to use it to get further and further under my skin. A couple of weeks ago, without going into a lot of details, things exploded for a few minutes, after burning hot earlier in the afternoon. I smacked him. Hard. Didn't leave a mark, but it was physical contact discipline, and it was either the third or fourth incident since we'd moved. I didn't call the cops this time, or alert his CAS worker (probably should have), but had to admit to it when we went to a different SW to try to get some parenting advice.
Two days later, we were alerted to the fact that CAS was looking at removing him, as the situation wasn't "safe" (for whom, they really weren't clear, but the impression is that it wasn't safe for him - he who has 4 inches, ten to twenty pounds and 27 years on me...). When I responded, essentially, "You want him, take him," they did.
He's in heaven, of course, thinking that he can just go back to his old life without the boat anchor of his parents and the older brother who always "abused" him. Oh, did I mention that he'd nicked a bottle of whiskey from me before he went away for a few days? No? Musta missed that. Anyway, we're packing up his stuff after cleaning it and it will get to him, somehow, some way, once he has his housing situation worked out.
I should be upset, not relieved, but that's how it is. The Kat has slept better the last couple of nights since we found out. It's really a case of us having to let him go into freefall, even if he's jumping out the same door of the same airplane that his sister did a couple of years ago, with the same lack of parachute. If either of them say, "I need help; please help me," we'll be there. Otherwise, tragically, we are out of the equation in a lot of ways.
Two days later, we were alerted to the fact that CAS was looking at removing him, as the situation wasn't "safe" (for whom, they really weren't clear, but the impression is that it wasn't safe for him - he who has 4 inches, ten to twenty pounds and 27 years on me...). When I responded, essentially, "You want him, take him," they did.
He's in heaven, of course, thinking that he can just go back to his old life without the boat anchor of his parents and the older brother who always "abused" him. Oh, did I mention that he'd nicked a bottle of whiskey from me before he went away for a few days? No? Musta missed that. Anyway, we're packing up his stuff after cleaning it and it will get to him, somehow, some way, once he has his housing situation worked out.
I should be upset, not relieved, but that's how it is. The Kat has slept better the last couple of nights since we found out. It's really a case of us having to let him go into freefall, even if he's jumping out the same door of the same airplane that his sister did a couple of years ago, with the same lack of parachute. If either of them say, "I need help; please help me," we'll be there. Otherwise, tragically, we are out of the equation in a lot of ways.