Hello! Happy New Year!
Normally I’d start off the year with a Word of the Year post or something similar, but I thought I’d do something different today as there’s been a bit of a difficulty in our house since thursday, and I figured that I really do want to be honest about what life is like with a child who has autism.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Max has handled Christmas and New Year really well all in all – even though he wasn’t well for Christmas week!
He managed to actually sit at the table for (2nd) Christmas dinner!
We’ve even been watching the Harry Potter movies of an evening and, although there’s been about 10 minutes protest at the start, he’s soon settled down and been happy to go between watching it with Zack and I, and going to play with his toys or the ipad.
But since Thursday it’s all started to get a wee bit too much for my wee man.
He’s been getting really angry every time I try to sit in the living room with him.
I mean, screaming and shouting no no no, and none of my usual tricks are working.
It’s been a change of pace with the holidays, and my wee Max thrives on the structure and routine of the school term.
Today he just could not calm himself down, and two hours later, I gave in and left the living room.
He was just getting into more and more of a state, and I was worried he might try to hurt himself, or me, or Zack.
I was starting to feel the frustration of not being able to figure out how to calm him down.
So I chose not to keep on with the battle.
Not today.
Here’s a 25 second clip of what he was like constantly for the 2 hours I was in the living room (warning – turn your volume down!):
Nothing could console him except me leaving the room.
As soon as I closed the door behind me, it stopped!
Most of the time, my little man does amazingly well, but there are times when everything just gets too much.
And that’s hard.
And something that I felt I needed to share with you out there.
Even when things are going well, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t peppered with times like this.
Just two more days to go, then he’s back at school. Hopefully that’ll help him feel more relaxed. I know I will!
And to all of you who think “I don’t know how you cope”… think of your baby. Your son, your daughter. Think of the love you have for them. You’d do whatever it takes. That’s what I’m doing too.
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