Attack of the Rabid Possessed Kid

Every once in a while, your kid will transform from a bright-eyed precious angel, to a snarling, rabid beast possessed with the fury of a thousand pains in the ass. This transformation takes place silently in the middle of the night and symptoms can last between 2-30 days. I call it Rabid Possessed Kid Syndrome and it can strike without warning.

With animals you have it easy. You see Fido every day but the day he is foaming at the mouth you have an idea he is all out of whack. But these little Cujos, AKA your kids, transform on the inside not the outside. They won"t start foaming in the mouth until they have knocked you on the ground and you are balling your eyes out because they kicked you in the nuts.Never fear! RPKS is only temporary. But you do need to know how to pick up the warning signs and minimize the long term damage to your authority.

My daughter is going through one of these tours of fury right now. The first major time, she managed to destroy our house and critically wound her "Angelic Status" set aside by my wife and I for her. This time, we have been able to pick up the warning signs and prepare ourselves. These temporarily possessed little devils are as predictable as a path of a hurricane so you need to start boarding up the windows and make sure you have enough supplies. Here are a few things my wife and I learned.

CONSISTENT AUTHORITY
Consistency is key to this type of attitude outbreak. If you give time outs then you should continue to give time outs. If you spank then you should continue to spank. [Note: I"m talking about continue to discipline with spanking not continually spank your child] The point is your child needs to know just because they are changing the rules does not mean you are changing yours.

We use the time out stair for misbehavior typically using the Super Nanny rule of 1 minute for each year of their age. (i.e. a 2 year old gets 2 minutes). For every time your child gets off the stair before the time, you add 2 extra minutes on. There was a time during the affliction of 2005 where my daughter had 12 minutes on the clock and I literally had to restrain her on the step as she kicked and screamed and tried to bite my arm.

I"m not going to lie, that was THE most difficult thing I have had to do since my daughter was born. But it taught her that we weren"t playing and that we would not be broken. Things actually started to make an upswing after that. Once you bend the rules or change the punishment, they will manipulate it further. Remember the old saying, "GIve them an inch, and they will take a mile and kick you in the nuts."

MAINTAIN COMPOSURE
It is really important that you do not get caught up in the moment. Your child will push your buttons. They will push buttons you didn"t realize you had until they pushed them. Be prepared to up the ante in a controlled manner. For instance plan ahead on what you will do, if after you punish your child, they do it again. Is it the same punishment? Is it for a longer period of time? Plan this in advance or you may do something you will regret.

During our first tour, my wife and I in a fit of anger threatened to cut a chunk of fabric off our daughter"s security blanket. She called our bluff and we had to follow through on our threat. We ended up cutting almost a third of it to pieces. We had not thought this out completely and in retrospect, we would not have made that threat to begin with. This security blanket is something my daughter will have sentimental feeling for her entire life and we permanently wounded it.

DIAGNOSE CAREFULLY
Most of the time outbreaks of RPKS is due to something significant: your kid has a sibling and they figure the only way to gain attention is to be bad, or they are stressed out about starting school, or they are just being bratty. Other times it could be due to medication. It has been shown that kids on antihistamines can have mood altering effects. And don"t ever discount that this may be more serious developmental problems.

The odds are it is just temporary but should it be happening more often than not, and definitely if your child is doing physical damage to themselves, you should really consult your doctor.

Good luck Noodads.

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