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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

If you had a child that never took responsibility for what they did - did they ever?

37 replies

HurryUpAndWait23 · 27/08/2021 21:44

My 10 year old absolutely does not take responsibility for his actions.
He has ADHD and we are working consistently and have things in place to address this.

Im not asking for advice on his behaviour

What concerns me is that he will never grow out of it and become a teen and a man that gets in trouble with the law and never take responsibility for anything.

I realise I'm catastrophising but I really need to hear from others that children can grow out of this.

For a general back ground, he is 1 of 3, stable house hold, parents together, no family issues, school is ok etc

OP posts:
saltinesandcoffeecups · 28/08/2021 00:22

Whelp… let me tell you about my sister. We’ll consider her the worst case scenario or cautionary tale here.

-Sister is 50 yo
-Incredibly intelligent
-been fired from multiple high level jobs
-has really never had to take care of herself or function as an adult (cars paid for, houses helped with, vacations paid for, etc.)

Her coup de gras to date had to be when she visited my mum who was in the hospital after brain radiation for cancer and tried to extort money to pay the mortgage on the house the house my mum financed for her. (Mum owns house, payments supposed to be made direct by sister).

My advice is is get a handle on this now while you still can. You may not change how your child is, but don’t fall into the guilt appeasement trap, to limit the chaos to your life.

Yeah so that happened last month, luckily mum gave me power of attorney. Oh and my sister hasn’t talked to her since after learning that she’s been cut off.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 28/08/2021 00:25

I should add in case it’s not clear my sister is the victim of everything and everybody. Nothing is her fault, it’s always somebody else (including me who had not spoken to her for 10 years before my mom got sick). I am apparently the cause of all of her problems.

Mumoftwoinprimary · 28/08/2021 00:34
  • Mumoftwoinprimary 4 words for you:-

Donald Trump
Boris Johnson
I had exactly did you get out of that?*

I just meant that both of them seem to take no responsibility whatsoever for their own mistakes and that maybe it isn’t the worst thing. I am the opposite - for whatever reason I feel responsible for everything. Sometimes I would like to live in a brain where you can completely mess up and still be pleased with yourself. I’m still feeling bad two days later for forgetting to put rice cakes on the blinking Tesco order!

HurryUpAndWait23 · 28/08/2021 07:39

@RoseMartha

Dd 14 with asd struggles with this also. Hit me today in the face. Told me it was my fault as I didnt do as she demanded. An unreasonable demand to say the least. But refused to take any responsibility for it.

She always believes it is someone else's fault.

I too wonder if it will get any better.
Sending a 🤗

Mine punches me repeatedly and tells me that it was my fault because I made him angry.

Even when calm, he still thinks that was my doing.

It will be about very basic things. Such as "time to brush your teeth/go to bed/turn your light off..."

OP posts:
Ouchyhurt · 28/08/2021 07:59

Have you looked at NVR programmes? We have just started this as parents for my son who is a similar age and has ADHD and asd. It has been amazing, and really helped me see it will be ok.

thelegohooverer · 28/08/2021 08:03

My ds is a blamer too. And it catches me off guard because I believe if you see something wrong you take action and learn from it. To me blame is pointless, a lot like guilt.
The question shouldn’t be “whose fault is it?”, but “what do I need to do about this right now?” And “what can I do to improve/prevent situation in future!”

But blaming seems to be hard wired into him.

I’m not even punitive. So it’s not as if there’s a good reason for trying to pass the buck. All I want is the situation fixed and a bit of thought about what might be a better future action.

I’ve no idea how to address it. If years of living with me hasn’t changed that, what will?

Do you think your ds might have ODD? (Just from what you said on the last post, and the blaming) That is something that needs intervention and help. It often co-occurs with adhd.

ivegotdreadfulpmttoday · 28/08/2021 09:29

My son had a lot of problems when younger and never took responsibility for things he had done. Not specifically diagnosed but ADHD traits/ASD traits/ODD traits. Definitely dyslexic.
The first time he took responsibility he was 14 years old and it came after a particularly spectacular meltdown and running away incident. After a weekend of hiding out at his mate's house he came back and said sorry. It was the start of a new happier period. Once he left school he became so responsible. Getting out of school (at 16 to do an apprenticeship) was the best thing that happened. A few years ago I wouldn't have believed such a turnaround was possible. I'm very proud of him.

GoodnightGrandma · 28/08/2021 09:33

My boy would look you in the eye and lie. Even if I had the evidence in my hand, he would continue to lie.
He’s now in his 20’s and moved out. I just don’t go there anymore as I hate lies, so I don’t want to be lied to.
The answer is no, he hasn’t grown out of it and never will. Unfortunately I live my life not believing a word he says.
My other kids aren’t like him, I really don’t know where it comes from.

OneinNine · 28/08/2021 09:47

We have found it improves a lot as they get older (ASC nearly 19). Both will apologise for stuff now (and mean it) in a way that they just would not when they were 10 when they had zero tolerance of criticism.

StopGo · 28/08/2021 10:01

My mother hasn't grown out of it and she is in her 80s. Sorry

therocinante · 28/08/2021 19:56

Both my husband and I have ADHD, and I really recognise this. Both of us have an automatic reaction to anything perceived as criticism to immediately refuse to take blame - if I say "oh shit it was bin day yesterday, it didn't go out" his default response would be "well I was doing X Y Z and I didn't know it was the orange bin this week". My default would be the same.

Luckily thanks to a lot of ADHD coaching over the years and some very open dialogue with each other, we're much less likely to fall back on the default now - I'm not sure if it comes from a lifetime of being aware that we're almost always not doing something we should be, or have missed something we shouldn't, and it makes us defensive. It's especially the case with small, ordinary household tasks - washing up, bins, etc - because we're both hyperaware of how often we 'fail' those. Or it's RSD, which is common in people with ADHD, and makes us react very poorly to (real or percieved) criticism.

Now, we know how to handle it in one another. So I'd say "we forgot the bins again - typical us, can't be helped, shall we do a tip run tomorrow?" - make it something that isn't blaming the other directly, offer a joint solution. Or instead of him saying "the cats haven't been fed yet" it'd be "ah shit it's 6pm can you get the cat's bowls and i'll get the biscuits?". I'm not sure it's the 'best' solution - it doesn't always mean taking responsibility - but it avoids that little panic/fear flare in our brains that make us defensive, and then we're much more likely to go, "Shit yeah, sorry, I forgot".

You mention tasks like needing to go to bed/switch light off etc - as I'm sure you know, the idea of doing boring tasks that hold no dopamine potential can be absolutely abhorrent to ADHD brains, to the point of anger and annoyance when asked to do them. If you haven't already, consider ways to mitigate that where you can - we have a speaker in the bathroom so I can listen to a snippet of podcast/a song while I brush my teeth and that makes it just interesting enough to get me to do it. My husband likes to dump the entire clean laundry pile in front of the TV and fold while he watches, or he wouldn't be able to force himself to do it. We got a Google home system and smart plugs so when we both come up to bed having not switched lamps off downstairs - because genuinely, it's so small and dull and routine that our brains actively avoid it! It is SO STUPID - that we have a nightly routine of switching them all off via the app in bed and we've named them all, so we say "Night Patricia" (the living room lamp) "Night Hubert" (conservatory lamp) etc. Because it is 0.1% more fun than actually doing it by the switch and that's enough.

You have my sympathies though. It's a fucking baffling way to exist, and it took me 2 and a half decades of hating myself for not being ABLE to bring myself to do the smallest things and being defensive, annoyed or evasive when I felt even slightly like I was being asked to do something I should be able to do.

Screwcorona · 28/08/2021 20:07

I've got a parent who doesn't take responsibility for any shitty things she does, as well as a sister. Neither grew out of it. They generally get on in life but lose friends and annoy people here and there

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