Effects of menal illness on kids

Another where to start!

Miss 8 has been quite moody of late. She has taken it upon herself to keep the lounge room clean and tidy and gets angry when anyone leaves something in there. This is good, but I think it is bordering on obsessive behaviour.

Friday night we had 2 of her cousins over to stay. Mr 10 and Miss 7. Mr 10 can be a pain in the neck, and Miss 7 is a typical 7yo and nowhere near as mature as Miss 8. Of course my Mr 5 idolises Mr 10 and tells me how wonderful he is even though he can be very naughty! Really they are great kids, but you have to keep an eye on them (like all kids!).

Friday night they were great! They played well together, went to bed when asked and we didn't hear a peep out of them.

Yesterday morning was a different story. I was relieving the recorder at WW and had to be there at 8. I left kids in front of the telly and W in bed and told him they would need breakfast. I raced in at 1015 to grab Miss 8 to take her to dancing. She told me in the car that Mr10 and her brother had been mean to her and wouldn't let her jump on the trampoline. I told her to just ignore them and that her cousins would probably be gone when she got home from dancing.

When i got home from dropping her off and racing around, W was still in bed. I coaxed him out and he was up when BIL and SIL arrived to collect the kids. They took Mr 5 with them for a play at their place and after I collected Miss 8 from dancing I dropped her off there too.

Cut to this morning... Miss 8 comes to me at 10am saying that there are slits all over the trampoline. I go down to investigate and she mumbles something about putting a knife on the trampoline yesterday that she found downstairs. I quiz her further then quiz Mr 5. Conflicting stories abound. I rang BIL and said that we had to get the kids together to work out what happened. He then said that he wanted to talk to them about the hole in their hedge from yesterday afternoon when the kids were playing.

Mr 5 then admits that he put the holes in the trampoline and then after a while Miss 8 burst into tears and said that she took the knife down there because her cousins wouldn't play with her and she wanted to kill herself.

I try to comfort her and ring BIL back. I get SIL and she says that she thinks the kids need to get together. I agree and take them around. All this time W is lying in bed. He had taken Mr 5 to football this morning. W won't come.

We finally get to the bottom of the story. Miss 8 had threatened her cousin and brother with the knife then left it there. She is a blubbering mess and sys she didn't know why she did it, but she wanted to kill herself. She then recounts what happened to the hedge. I have told our kids no TV or computer this week. Miss 8 knows the trampoline mat will be replaced out of her bank account savings. The cousins are grounded, but we are going around there tonight for dinner so that the kids can show us how well they play together. It will be interesting to see how W goes...

Tomorrow is a public holiday, but first thing Tuesday I will be ringing the OT who deals with kids and mental health and getting Miss 8 in there. I am also going to email her teacher and let him know what is going on. W and I have an appointment with the psych on Wednesday so will no doubt talk about it then too!!!