Really struggling with DD atm. No SEN, pretty normal child, except she doesn't seem to listen to anything, process any information given by me/DH or think outside the 2 feet square of air that surrounds her. And I'm running out of patience.
This is today so far.....
Out for a bike ride. She wants to go ahead. I said that was ok, she could go up to the shop past the traffic lights and wait there. DD cycles up to the traffic lights (she is about 20m ahead), stops and presses the button. I called to her that we weren't crossing the road, no response, but she could hear me, I called again. Nothing. Then she starts crossing the road and i literally had to scream at her " DD we aren't crossing the road" by which point she is half way across the road on the green man. DH has to go into the road and get her back. She is so upset that I've shouted at her. But what alternative did I have other than letting her cross the road and then make her come back? I've given her clear instructions and told her twice not to cross the road.
Then i've parked the car to nip into a shop. She undoes her seatbelt, climbs into the front takes the car freshener from the mirror, climbs back into her seat and starts swinging it around on her finger until it flies off, out of the open window and onto the ground (all this relayed by DS). By the time I get back to the car another car has parked over it so I can't get it, so essentially we have left litter in the car park. I pointed out that she has littered the car park but say no more.
Then she wants me to hang the hammock outside. I said yes. She then watches me unload the washing machine and start to hang the washing up and half way through she says " have you hung the hammock up?". She has literally watched me since asking the first time, so she KNOWS I haven't hung the hammock up. I said, "DD you have watched me hanging the washing up since you first asked, when do you think I might have hung the hammock up?". She doesn't have an answer.
At meal times she will often wash her hands, sit down, wait until I have sat down and then say "can you get me a drink of water".....she has just washed her hands at the tap, if she wants water why doesn't fill a glass while she is there? Mealtimes are pretty trying anyway as she either spills most of her meal down her clothes or knocks over a glass or the pepper into someone else plate...its never uneventful.
We will be about a mile from home in the car and she will say "How long until we are home?". She knows the road, she knows we are nearly home, why on earth is she asking this question. Same with the school journey (pre lockdown). "How long until we are at school?".....said at any point of the journey. It takes 15 minutes, we go the same way every day.
"Don't leave the front door open, the puppy will get out" said a million times along with "Don't leave the garden gate open" (we now have it on an automatic locking hinge). Front door regularly left open.
I try to keep calm, often return the question as "what do you think" if it a distance one, suggest she gets her own glass of water (in the hope that she might remember the next time).......but I am at the end of my rag.
Is this normal? And if it is how do other people cope?