I am new to this blogging thing so I thought I would start out by telling you why I’m starting this blog.  I am a single mom who is a bit older than most mom’s of teenagers.  I was old enough to be my son’s grandmother when he was born.  It wasn’t for lack of trying.  I lost three babies over the course of 12 years.  You’d think the extra time and extra baby lust would give me more patience, but sometimes no.  It doesn’t help that I have a bit of OCD myself.

    My son was a bit of a challenge from the beginning and my family just chalked it up to me spoiling him.  Therefore I’ve never had a support system.  I moved us 2000 miles from family and friends and none of them understand what it is like to walk in my shoes.  They are just full of suggestions and worries without a bit of understanding.  They know all about raising kids so they think they know what is going to work with my kid.  By starting this blog I’m hoping to find the support I need as well as provide it for others who deal with an OCD child.  I hope to post articles with needed information as well as add some humor to the days of my readers.  From time to time I may post little articles I’ve written over the years just to break away from OCD for a day.  At one time I hoped to have a humor column so I have a number of unpublished columns that I wouldn’t mind getting feedback on.

    First I’d like to give a little background.  My son was 13 before we got a diagnosis of OCD.  Once we did and I started reading about it so many things made sense!  I had been fighting with him and arguing with him from day one.  I still can’t believe that his first word wasn’t sh*t because I said it so much. It’s amazing that he survived infancy because I did everything wrong!  No matter what they say parenting is not always a natural instinct.  I should have known he was special because he was always ahead on most things in the “What to Expect” books.  His first word wasn’t daddy or mama, it was Geshundheit.  His second word was kitty.  He took longer to walk on his own, but a week later he took off running through the house and I couldn’t catch him.  I’ve been trying to keep up with him ever since.

    He had good teachers for kindergarten and first grade.  Second grade was a nightmare.  In two months time I watched my happy, outgoing, and popular baby boy become a sullen, shy, frightened child.  His teacher and his principal were terrible.  He became more and more oppositional and refused to do his homework.  The harder he dug in the more they punished him.  After Christmas vacation (or in P.C. speak, winter break, though in some places there is another break in the winter) he went to school for about a week and then exhibited flu like symptoms.  From then on every year he would get sick for at least two weeks every winter, even though he had great teachers.  There were several events that I will go into in another post that contributed to PTSD which is a common companion to OCD.  It took years of counseling trying to figure out what made this kid tick until everything came to a head when he was in eighth grade.  Since then we have had to deal with rages during which he smashes things, agoraphobia, insomnia, and other fun things I will talk about later. 

    I do want to welcome anyone who comes to check out this blog.  I hope you will find solace and comfort here.  I welcome comments, but please be respectful.  Anyone indulging in name calling or commenting on other than the subjects will be banned from the site.  This is meant to be a supportive place, not somewhere for people to come and be confrontational.