I suppose I should be grateful that one of the guys who arrived with the armed response unit also has ADD and could sympathise with Damien… but all I could think of while he was talking to me (lecturing me- on the music Damien should be listening to instead of the stuff he has; the kids Damien should be mixing with instead of these little kids at the holiday school; that Damien had too much sugar yesterday and that’s why he was so hyper today; that Damien told him he forgot his meds today; etcetera; etcetera; etcetera) was whether or not I was looking at Damien’s future… as a security guard… instead of the marine biologist he’s always wanted to be. Maybe I should have launched into a lecture of my own on how we’ve been dealing with this for ten years and how I’m not a complete idiot when it comes to ADHD… but I didn’t. I just stood there- with my fucking chin quivering like a twelve year old. Once again on the brink of tears and not taking off my sunglasses so they couldn’t see I’d already been crying. Once again I found myself apologising profusely to a complete stranger. Thanking them for saying they’re not pressing charges and urging them please to get hold of me if there are any further developments…
Okay. Deep breath. Let me start at the beginning.
Today at about noon I took Damien a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, he was all smiles and sitting on the sand pit roof. He even seemed to be in a good mood and introduced me to the kid he was “hanging” with!
About an hour later I got a phone call from one of the guys at the holiday school. When he told me who was speaking, my first thought was (always is) “Oh crap- what has he done this time?!” and not what I personally would expect a mother’s proper response to be, “OMG- is Damien OK?!” Turns out my little darling broke into the school tuck shop to get at the ice lollies! The alarms went off and the armed response unit arrived and then I was called. I got Damien to get his stuff, sent him to the car while I spoke to the security guards and then I apologised to the holiday school caregivers, thanked them for having Damien for the last two days and told him not to worry about Damien coming back.
Then I left.
I took Damien back to work with me- where I managed to get some work done despite being horribly distracted!
Like I said to my mom in the car yesterday- is it any wonder I’m so friggin paranoid about where Damien is and what he’s doing!