Hi all! Things here are mostly status quo. The focus/concern always seems to swing between difficult child 1 and difficult child 2 ,so lately it's been difficult child 2, my 8 y.o. I'm just wondering how you all here handle your difficult children' outbursts in public? For example, yesterday we were all getting haircuts and difficult child 2 was crabby and being very very rude to me in front of the hairdresser. Honestly, I don't even know how to deal with these types of situations. I feel like people look at me like I'm pathetic for not reprimanding difficult child 2. But if I try to reprimand him or redirect or whatever, it usually will just escalate the situation. Then I hate that somehow difficult child 2 (or difficult child 1 for that matter, if she's the one acting that way) feels reinforced in behaving badly because I don't do the right thing/respond the right way/don't respond at all. difficult child 1 has been better (*knock on wood*) but we'll still have occasions mostly at home where she'll get angry at me for something and say "I hate you". I don't know what to do! I feel that's unacceptable behavior, but again, I feel like any response just escalates things. I'm starting to feel run over by these situations. Frankly, I'm exhausted by it all, and am sick of confrontations. Blah, would love to hear how you wise people deal with-these kinds of situations. I'm still working on neuropsychologist testing for difficult child 2. While I feel the medications have helped difficult child 1, I'm not feeling the medications are woking as good for difficult child 2 - and we have tried many different combos. He still can be all over the place. There are still lots of outbursts when things don't go his way and there's no predicting what will set him off. I'm ready for them to go back to school. I do think the routines are much better for my kids.