Holy wow!!!! No idea what so ever... My children know I am bipolar and I explain it to them in the simplest forms that I know how. It is primarily my 11 and 7 year old with me as my oldest is dealing with his own legal and confusion on life problems that he full well blames on me.
I simply explain that mommy cannot stop sometimes until the kitchen is clean, or the bathroom etc. it is a sickness that I have that I wish would go away but it doesn't so we need to work together on dealing with it. Our trigger word in our house is mommy time out. If they think I need it they say it and I go no questions asked, we can either talk about it afterwards or not their call. Or sometimes I'm the one saying mommy time out with the same conditions. They full well know the safe is for my medicine that is VERY DANGEROUS to them. It kills me inside to think they have to deal with such a neurotic mother sometimes but hey atleast they ALWAYS have dinner and a clean house... I can't beat myself up over it because that makes it no better for them.
Is your mother BP or have any other things? Maybe she was sick and didn't know how to deal with it. It is not easy that is for sure