This spring, our eldest boy will have been living with us
for longer than he was at his birth parent’s. I was just thinking about it as I
lay in bed listening to the rest of the family get up this morning. He came in
for a cuddle and asked me when our next adoption celebration day would be. Clearly
he’d also thinking about us and how long we had been together.
At times like this, which are not so very rare, I rejoice
that this boy and I, who come from such different places, have somehow formed a
telepathic connection. He laughed and said, ‘I read your mind!’ to which I
replied, ‘Again.’
But I don’t have that connection with my younger son. The
reason I was lying in bed listening to everyone else get up was that I’d had 24
hours of a nasty stomach bug and wasn’t well enough for work. But did the
younger one come in to say hi? I didn’t even see him.
I wasn’t surprised by this. Although he can be very
affectionate, he doesn’t seem to have room for much on his radar. He is very
single minded. It often feels as though he doesn’t know or really care who is
with him or what day it is, as long as a specific need is being met. I guess
this takes us back to his neglectful start.
I was listening to what he was doing and saying for the 40
frenetic minutes before their dad managed to get them out of the house. Dad was
trying to be extra loving and patient but our son quite easily and deliberately
got Dad to the point where he was impatient and annoyed. He had a need to do
that. I listened to him argue about everything his dad said until the
relationship snapped again.
I can write things down and come to some sort of rationale
about his needs and behaviours. But I don’t feel that telepathic link, like I do with my elder
son. I wonder if this is because he is actually blocking me out. I suppose that
part of attachment disorder is just that – the unwillingness to connect because
you don’t trust. And as a parent, that lack of trust can hurt in its rejection.
When we are hurt, we defend… and so it goes on.
It must be so hard to be him, a disconnected little soul who
needs to be at odds with people to feel that he has any control. His childhood
has been a place of constant conflict. It’s heartbreaking to know that more
than half of that time he has been in our family. We haven’t been able to fix
it. We find it very, very difficult to deal with.
And where the eldest knows he is loved and can love back
wholeheartedly, for our younger son that comfort isn’t there. He can’t make
that connection because he can’t believe that it’s trustworthy.
He’s very good at making connections with others… I think that’s more to do with other connections not being so dangerous and deep…?
I suppose what I’m trying to think through is how, as a
parent held at arm’s length, one can eventually connect. We do special time,
but he spends that time pushing you away. We sit down and do puzzles, games,
art or homework together but it’s all about him being better, me being dumb. A
denial of friendship and love.
I’ve just had a few hours away from this with the kids home
from school, trying to spend some quality time with the youngest and reflected
that, actually, a connection with him IS there. I am aware of his feelings.
Only they are hostile, broken ones. I’m not sure if the connection is faulty,
or things are faulty at either end.
As usual, I just don’t know what to think, feel, do or not
do. If there was an IT department for attachment, would
they ask me if I’d tried turning it off and on, or have some other, similarly
obvious-to-everyone-else solution?
