You'll put the dress on and LIKE it!

Sometimes it's really hard not to laugh....or cry at the crazy shit that goes on here.  Today was one of those days that I was completely at a loss on how to get the point across.  T wanted M to play "dancing" with her.  That involved firing up the karaoke machine and in T's mind at least, putting on fancy dresses (my old dance recital costumes).  For whatever reason, M didn't want to put a dress on.  That's when things got batshit crazy up in here. 

I kept hearing that kids on the spectrum, in particular Aspies, feel the need to control who and what they're playing with at all costs.  T's never really played "with" anyone enough for me to see anything more than her being bossy. Whoa, I get it now.  Everything was great until M said she didn't want to put the dress on.  T literally came apart at the seams.  There was crying, flailing, hurling of insults.  She actually tackled her sister multiple times and told her, "I WILL get this dress on you!!!!".  How the hell do you not laugh at that?  I mean, it's not funny that M was on the receiving end, but T was completely maniacal at that point.  She kept chanting/screaming, "It's not fair.  It's my game so we play the way I want to!!!!  She's not following the rules!!".  I tried logic by telling her that when she plays her sister's game she'd have to....insert everything I could think of that she despises here...because then it would be M's game, M's rules.  That stopped her long enough for her to say, "Well, let's hope that doesn't happen.", before she went right back to it.  I tried compromise and told her M would play whatever she wanted to play as long as she didn't have to wear the dress.  That damn dress was the dealbreaker for reasons only known to T.  She then resorted to more physcial violence to see if she could beat her sister into playing.  She locked her in the freaking pantry while shouting, "Now are you going to put the dress on?!?".  I felt like we were in some alternate Silence of the Lambs universe, you know, "It rubs the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again".  This went on The.Entire.Day...

Like I said, hard not to laugh, cry, admit myself to the State Hospital.  I feel for T because it's clearly almost physically painful for her not to be in control of the situation and the "rules".  I also feel for M, and once she's old enough, K for being on the receiving end of something that makes NO SENSE to them.  And my husband wondered why we were all still in our PJ's when he got home from work...