Stressed out

I don't want to bore you all with my whinging, but I've just had the most stressful week ever, today especially. That's probably why I haven't updated my blog much, I hate moaning here, and I haven't had much positive stuff to say. It's mainly Taylor's behaviour stressing me out, but today everything has just gone wrong at every turn. He's always been such a quiet, well behaved boy, a bit naive and excitable but he would never do anything wrong. That's normally Ryan's job!

It all started a week or so ago when I caught Taylor stealing some sweets from Asda, so we sold his brand new Wii as punishment. He's also had all playing out privileges removed, as we found out that his older friend Josh had been boasting about what he'd stolen(all made up of course, which we discovered when we confronted Josh about it) so Taylor was trying to impress him. That is the end of that friendship!
I then had a phone call from the school to say we owe £50 in dinner money, even though we send him with dinner money every day. The little bugger has been pocketing it for about 6 weeks! So as punishment for that he's paying me back. Then today I hear from the childminders sister that Taylor has taken the cigarette lighter in her car and burnt her dashboard with it, more than once so it wasn't just an accident. I feel like I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. :(

I recently started working a second job, working 4 days instead of 2, and the boys have both been moaning about not getting enough attention, but I've thought all along that this is all about his real Dad Michael not seeing him enough. He is a complete loser when it comes to visitation, his girlfriend stops him from coming and he doesn't even try or care. It would be easier if he'd never bothered to have a relationship with him in the first place, then Taylor wouldn't miss him. He hasn't seen him since February, and if I don't bother calling him to arrange something it'll be at least two to three months before he would bother to call us here. He's a lovely guy, but he has no idea what he is doing to his son. The thing that really annoys me is his own Dad abandoned him as a child so he must have some empathy for Taylor, surely? I wouldn't mind if I'd made life difficult for him, but we've always got on, been amicable with each other, Mike & Pete get on fine, I get on with his girlfriend. There is no reason for all this.

Taylor broke down and admitted that this was the problem today, it's taken him long enough to admit it, he's quite a sensitive and private child. I'm at my wits end really, I've run out of punishments and it's up to Mike to step up now and help us with this.