Addendum

In an attempt to calm myself down and allow myself the luxury of sleeping tonight, I'm going to sketch the last hour out for you.

• I check Dasha's agenda to see if she finished everything. She didn't.
• I call her back downstairs and ask her if she knows what was left incomplete.
• She does, indeed, know that she didn't finish part of her science homework.
• I ask her to do it and she simply says that she'll do it tomorrow before class.
• I tell her to sit down and completely it NOW! (Those definitely weren't the exact words I used).
• I begin looking through her binder to sign her agenda. I find ALL of the papers that I'd completed on Monday night. She didn't turn them in. I ask her why they are still in her agenda. Her answer was, "The teacher didn't ask me for them." I asked her if the other kids turned theirs in. She said they did but once again tells me that no one came to get hers or ask her personally to turn them in.
• I decided not to even go there. But, I thought she wasn't supposed to get a locker until I turned them in. ??? She came home today wearing her locker key around her neck. When I told her that if she lost it I have to pay $25 to get a new one, she just looked blankly at me. I'm thinking that she'll be without a locker in about a week and I'll be out $25!
• Then, as I'm zipping her binder back up, I feel stuff in the front pocket. Against my better judgement and my blood pressure, I unzipped it and looked inside. Yep. Lots of mechanical pencils and erasers. I sure didn't buy them! When I asked where they came from, she told me that kids gave them to her. I ask who those kids were and she couldn't tell me. I asked her if she traded for them. She said, "No."

I very vividly remember that group of therapists telling me that things would probably get worse in middle school. Are you kidding me? This is day four! By day 100, I'm going to need liquor and medication! Why does she steal? I buy her cute pencils and erasers because I know she's a clepto when it comes to those things and if she has her own unique stuff, it curtails the problem.  Is it the thrill? Is it the negative attention? I absolutely love that the therapists can't give me any definite answers. Absolutely no one wants to put a diagnosis on her! I seriously don't care what anyone calls it and I don't care that her issues ever get a formal diagnosis! I just want someone to tell me what to do! Punishing her doesn't work. Positive reinforcement doesn't work. Do I just give up and let the cards fall where they may and then end up in the security office at WalMart when she gets a five finger discount there?

Someone STOP this roller coaster, please!