Better Living through Chemistry

Again, like the post below, I must post and then comment on an advice letter.

In this case, I used to be the "handful" before bed. Before the divorce, I was way too hyper. Read the letter, and then read how my family dealt with me.

Dear Care and Feeding,

My husband and have a 7-year-old son, “Orlando,” who is a high-energy handful. Two weeks ago, we were due to go out of town to meet with a client (we run our own business together). Orlando’s regular sitter had to cancel at the last minute, so my sister-in-law, “Evie,” who lives in town, and came over to watch Orlando for us.

We returned home late that night expecting to find the house wrecked and Evie exhausted. Instead, she was sitting on the couch watching TV, and Orlando was in bed asleep. When I asked her how on earth she had gotten him to go to bed before 11 p.m., she told me had given him an edible and it “really mellowed him out”! I was furious, but it’s my husband’s reaction that has me seeing red. He actually wants to start giving Orlando small doses of edibles to “even out his mood” since the one his sister gave him worked so well! His excuse it that people use medical marijuana all the time, and it would be no different. Our son is 7! Now I’m concerned he may resort to Evie’s home remedy when he wants some peace and quiet behind my back. How can I convince him this is not an appropriate treatment?

In my case, my family took different routes. The most normal one was that I was allowed to stay up later, if I was quiet. Or I could lie in my bed, and watch TV through the bedroom door into the living room until I fall asleep.

Now this didn't always work, and occasionally my parents would give me a small glass of red wine. You can say this was bad, but this was nothing. When my maternal grandparents put me to bed, I was occasionally given a nice shot of whiskey. When my paternal grandmother (Zela) had a horrible day, with her elderly, cranky father, her daughter with Down syndrome, and me - her hyperactive grandson all having been too much, I was given valium. I assume it was a small dose, because it was white, not the 5 or 10 mg blue. But it worked.

My father also sometimes gave me things to help me sleep every now and then. In fact, I slept through the big San Fernando Valley earthquake because I had a cold and couldn't sleep so dad slipped me a secondal.

And I turned out dreamy!