I was gone for most of the weekend at one of my bonspiels, so as usual, the kids at least seemed to give some show of having missed me while I was gone. (Now, we all know that they really don’t care, one way or the other, when I’m gone, since they love Mommy more and I’m the disciplinarian. But it’s nice that they pretend. 😉 ) But I returned yesterday evening, and while the wife and I were preparing food in the kitchen, the Monster came wandering in. Continue reading
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What The Future Holds
The Monster might be seven right now, but there’s one truism about children – eventually, they grow up.
In some ways, we’ve already started to provide for the Monster as he gets older, which is to say that we have a college fund set up for him, and we’ve done some looking at places that he could eventually go to college if he’s ready for it at that stage. But let’s all be very honest about a fact of life for children like the Monster – there are very, very few places that one can think of finding employment for them, if they’re not mainstreamed. Continue reading
Divide and Conquer
A lot is made about the fact that moms “are more involved” with their children’s care than dads are.
In some ways, I’m willing to agree, but with an important caveat. Continue reading
Night Changes
A while back, we changed up the Monster’s night time routine to try to ensure ourselves a good night’s sleep. Despite the fact that we’ve no way to know how much he’s actually using the iPad each night, it’s been a godsend in the sense that we’ve been able, ourselves, to get some rest.
But nothing lasts forever.
R, The Therapy Preschooler
When I’m browsing on line, I see a lot of great stories about how some siblings of children with Autism help to advocate with their peers for more understanding or help their siblings cope…
Well, but R is 3, despite any of his illusions to the contrary, and it’s going to be a good long while before he’s doing a lot of those things. He’s not “aware” in an informational sense that the Monster has Autism – we’ve not yet figured out how to have that discussion with him on a level that we think he’d understand – but we do realize that he has to understand that there’s something different about his brother when compared to other children.
But then there’s his own way of helping other children with Autism. Continue reading
Where Rubber Meets The Road
One of the things I tend to dread with the kids – the Monster especially – is going to family life cycle events.
It’s not that our family doesn’t understand how children are, and more directly how the Monster may potentially in various situations. It’s more, to me, the potential for a meltdown, an outburst, for something to distract from what is really a once-in-a-lifetime thing for someone else…
On that note, though, we went away this past weekend to my brother-in-law’s wedding. Continue reading
Night and Day
What a difference a few weeks make.
On Monday this week, the public schools in Baltimore went back into session. The Monster, mind you, went back to school last week, when the Gateway School resumed after its August break, so he’s already most of the way through his second week at school…
And he’s thriving.
Modern Parent Problems
I’m going to throw this one out to the hivemind, because I’m absolutely stumped here.
A while back, we decided to let the Monster have his iPad overnight, in coordination with the melatonin and occasional drugging to try to get him to sleep through the night. My goal, frankly, is simple, and defers to a rule we used to (basically) have in my mother’s house – as long as we weren’t keeping anyone else up, it was okay if we weren’t sleeping.
Save that the last several mornings that I’ve gotten up for my daily walk/run, the Monster’s been up at 5 AM on his iPad. Continue reading
Wildwood Days
We don’t usually do family vacations.
As a lot of families with Autism know, vacations can be a recipe for disaster – the lack of structure, the unfamiliar environments, the missing preferred foods and sounds… and in our case, especially, I tend to spend more nights on overnight trips in the minivan with the Monster, than I do enjoying the bed I’m paying for.
At some point, though, you just have to bite the bullet and take a trip. Continue reading
Wait, There’s More?
So with everything that’s happened to get to this point, you’d think that everything was done for the new school year. The Monster was determined to need a non-public placement, we’d seen a couple of schools, and so it’s like anything else – go pick up your transfer packet and show up at the new school, right?
Wrong. Continue reading