That sleep eating guy...

Yes the title is correct.

We once had a call to do relief for a weekend.  It was Friday at about 2, and the worker on the phone said she was desperate. (that's one way to make a girl feel special...only call when you're desperate).  We weren't on the relief list, but she called on the off chance that we'd say yes.  There was a 13 year old boy, who'd broken down his current foster placement....that's code for his current foster family insisted he be moved out today.... they gave a brief description of what had happened in his current home and let us know he had ADD and ODD.

I've learned a few things in my years of being a foster parent.  One thing is, be really clear about your expectations before you take an emergency weekend relief placement.  Especially clear about when and where on Monday you'll be dropping him off.

Sometimes if you're not careful a weekend emergency can stretch out much longer than a weekend.

Anyway, I got a name of a worker who would meet me Monday morning, so I said yes...he could stay with us for the weekend.  I mean, how bad could it be, he's just a kid right?

As he was being dropped off his worker mentioned that he had some sleep walking issues.  She failed to mention he had sleep eating issues.  Yup, when we woke up Saturday morning, there were open boxes of crackers on the counter, opened tupperware containers in the fridge, all sorts of food trash in his bedroom, and the piece de la resistance?  Steve's special birthday cake had been half eaten, the dirty plate was in the bedroom under the bed.  And the kid appeared to have no recollection how any of it happened.

What are you supposed to do?  It's not like we could ground him from eating all day, or make him pay for the groceries he'd ruined.  If he really was sleep eating the only option was to lock up whatever we could on Saturday night.  So we did.

Lots of kids have all sorts of diagnosis' and letters attached to their names.  I think this might be one of the most genuine cases of ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) I've ever seen.  We'd noticed almost immediately that if we told him to do something, he wouldn't.  `And figured out very quickly to give him a few options, all of which we could live with, and let him choose. (What would you like to do....have a shower now, have a shower after dinner or have a bath after dinner).  Somehow, we got him to church with us on Sunday morning.  Best part of the day?  Every one was standing to sing, except this guy, but I didn't care, we'd made it to church and we were mostly clean.  Once the singing was done the pastor announced, 'You may now be seated'.  Everybody sat, except our weekend visitor, he stood up as quick as he could, and remained standing for quite some time.  He was truly opposite man.  There are times when it is very nice that everyone around you knows you're a foster parent.

Monday morning rolled around, we'd made it, with backwards asking and depleted cupboards, but we'd made it.  I called the CAS to confirm I was on my way in.  They asked if I'd be able to keep him for a couple more days while they figured out his group home placement.  I said no, and dropped him off at 9:30 like we'd planned on Friday....then I went grocery shopping on my way home.