The wife and I are actually going on vacation soon.
I’ve commented before that it’s important to find time as a couple to actually be a couple – we spend so much time (especially at this time of year, with IEP meetings and placement discussions) doing things for the kids that it’s easy to go for days without acting like there was a time where we were young and in love and actually married…
And in the time since the last time we got away, we’ve forgotten what an undertaking it is.
I get the impression that planning for a childless vacation when you have a child with Autism is rather like planning the storming of the beaches at Normandy.
We have all of our own lists – the packing list (clothes, medication, sun screen, any extras), documentation that we have to take with us (passports, entry tariffs, airline tickets, transfer to/from the airport, reservations)…
…and then there’s the Big Book of Childcare for the babysitter. This is the book that includes their daily schedules – the Monster’s bus times and R’s drop-off/pick-up from preschool, the non-canceled therapy appointments – and all of the stuff around the house. It’ll have the list of how to use the entertainment system, the information about the wifi. Contact information for the local grandparents and the doctors, how to get to the hospital. Authorizations for medical and the like if it’s needed, God forbid.
The good news is that the week we’re gone is a fairly typical week. We’ve been nice and canceled the most difficult of the therapy appointments, so there’s just the easier ones where she can manage both kids. There are no weird doctors’ appointments, no trips to the dentist, and she’ll have a note from us if she wants to take the kids to the pool or the zoo.
Fortunately for her, also, the Monster’s been expanding his food choices, so it’s not just another week of pizza for her to be serving up to him. I’m not entirely sure that she won’t want to resort to that anyway, but she at least has options that she can avail herself of. (Plus both of our kids are good about vegetables, which is another good thing…)
I’m grateful that we do have a sitter who’s able to handle both kids and deal with all of these fun things. We’ll see, though, if she’s still wanting to be the sitter after another week-long stint with our children…