To buy a police whistle to control these bloody kids

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I'm living in a total mad house.

We have a lot of neurodiversity in our household, me and DH included.

All of the usual parenting techniques don't work here when the children kick off, not even the autism specific parenting techniques work most of the time with my eldest (who is almost 7) as he has a PDA profile and ADHD to boot.

He and the littlest one (3 and wild) clash like cat and dog. What starts off as a disagreement over a toy or some other non event quickly descends into absolute pandemonium. Screaming, screeching, banging things, throwing things and it goes on and on and on.

I honestly don't know how I haven't had the police or social services turn up at my door as it must sound like a murder in progress half of the time. They don't react or respond to me trying to get them to stop or lower the volume, not even when I raise my own voice which of course just adds to it. It goes on and on and on. The neighbours can't stand us.

After an hour of total hell and never-ending screaming at one another this afternoon the film kindergarten cop sprang to mind. In the film, the teacher uses his loud AF police whistle to regain order when the kids are being unruly.

WIBU to order one and give it a go?

I've name changed as I know I sound absolutely ridiculous but I'm at the end of my rope.

Go for it 😉

Ha ha ha ha. Sorry, I had to laugh as for a long time when we were at the park, the whistle was the only thing that got the kids to come back to me! 4 DC, 2 with neurodiversity. It certainly grabbed their attention in a way voice did not, so I'd say go for it.

Nice idea.
Probably won't work.
I tried loud noise interruptions with mine. Did fuck all. Tried white noise. Tried the hoover. Tried copying their vocalisations. All sorts.

Some things that did work for me -
The full tight wraparound hold from behind. Your legs go round their legs, your arms go round their body, pinning their arms to their sides and you tuck your head down. That bit's important. I forgot that once and he threw his head back and broke my nose.

Weighted blankets do the job too.. Similar thing. Deep pressure.

Sensory equipment. We bought loads. That helped. Creating calming spaces to put them in. Dark. Secure. Pillows on the floor. Weighted blanket again.

Zip up autism tent beds for them to go in.

Separating them. We were lucky enough to live in a town house so my husband would take one and I'd take the other and we'd go as far away from each other as possible. When I was on my own I'd put them in different rooms and sit on the floor in the hallway between them and cry.

Distracting them with their favourite toddler TV shite sometimes helped.

Strapping them into the double pushchair and taking them outside, preferably the park away from everyone.

Sweets. Yes. Awful. Lazy parenting. Rewarding blah blah don't care. Worked sometimes.

I know some primary school teachers who use a whistle when outside with the children. I think it's a marvelous idea.

Could be worth a try to shock them, but may make no difference if they are happily screeching and banging.

I would simply go and remove one of them each time, alternating which so it doesn’t seem you are targeting one. Any space for a calming corner you could put the stuff you have in to take them to?

We have a massive punching bag for my 9yo as he was just destroying everything in his room otherwise. He still does but he knows if he throws something/uses it to hit something, it will be removed from his room so a reminder to use the bag (or hit his bed/pillows etc) does help.