Surviving Summer (E2)

Day 2. I appear to have been caught in a time warp. What is apparently day two of the school holidays actually feels like day 297...
Today I wasn't solo, I had help in the form of one of our awesome carers. Teen Queen and the Drama Diva were out being sociable, which left me with Little Miss Mouth and B.
All was going well until B woke up. He wasn't happy with life this morning, and point blank refused to get in the Carer's car because he wanted to go in ours thank you very much. Eventually I bundled him in, and firmly told him he was going to Adventure Wonderland, and he was going to have fun (with as much fake-it-til-you-make-it as I could manage). They drove off, B screaming. And I felt shitty that nothing is doable together because of his crazy level needs. It stinks.
Carer told me he calmed down pretty quickly but had to battle tourists and summer chaos at Adventure Wonderland. B doesn't do well with personal space invasion, and tends to respond by pushing, tapping or pinching anyone in his immediate area. Not so conducive to remaining in one place for any length of time during summer in a holiday location. Fuck tourists.
I headed to the seaside with Little Miss Mouth, who spewed various forceful opinions at me until my very good friend helpfully rescued me. She kept her at the beach while I came home to be an extra pair of hands in case B needed 2:1 cover. As it was things were pretty chill at that point, but we work on a minute by minute basis in this house which is at best stressful, and at worst insanity-inducing.
Cue survive until S got in from work. Shove processed breadcrumbed food in oven. Generally lament the current state of my life until it dawns on me I DIDN'T HAVE TO FEED B THE BEIGE SHIT TODAY. Because he ate! This is a big fat win. And the best thing? IT'S THE SECOND DAY IN A ROW! I did have to change pads that rivalled the stench of festival toilets but still, the boy ate.
Today's lesson (at the risk of sounding overly optimistic and Instagram affirmation-y)..?
In the midst of the shitstorm, there's always a rainbow. Well. A sliver of sunshine at least....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disability 101

First up, apologies for the length of time that’s passed since my last post. The summer was crazy, my youngest has since started school and we’ve tackled one small family crisis after another for the last few months- as you do. Business as usual then. Excuses aside, I’d like to put a disclaimer out right here. This topic is something close to my heart, and is in no way meant to insult or guilt trip you lovely people; but rather inform and educate from the perspective of those of us living in the parallel universe of disability. The biggest hurdle we face as parents of special kids is an ignorance and lack of education on behalf of the world. These barriers infiltrate our everyday; irksome diversion signs on this long haul journey to destination unknown. Take a walk in my shoes for a while … . Five things you should never say to a special needs parent … .. (and a few things you should) 1. God only gives special kids to special people, and God never gives
Read more

Dear Mrs May

Half term sucks. It is not a yay-we-get-to-lie-in-and-laze-about scenario. Not when you have a B, who, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep, needs line of sight supervision. His favourite activity at the moment is posting. All the shit, in all the places. I am done with fishing tiny random lego pieces out from behind the radiator, un-wedging books from the miniscule gap between the DVD player and the unit, and risking my actual life by blindly groping around for toy cars amidst the wires behind the TV. The most annoying thing? The posting of random items IN the bedside lamps. Why? Sweet Lord, why? I have no idea what runs through that boy's head. All I know is such obsessive chaos does not a chilled half term make.  One thing that often escapes the radar of typical families is the complete lack of childcare for kids with additional needs. As in, regular childcare that we can ring up and book onto does not exist. I'll just let that sink in for a minute, i
Read more

Inside-out knicker-trousers... and other tales of joy

Image
So I've been wanting to write about this for a while, and I have a feeling it may be a touchy topic, especially amongst my fellow parents of kids with special needs. First up, I'll let you know where I'm at, since I haven't blogged in a while. Life is still chaotic- nothing new there. Raising four kids is fairly full on; my life is spent mainly removing knickers from inside-out trousers that have been left to walk themselves from the bathroom to the wash basket, spending hours cooking meals that are wolfed down in minutes, practising my ninja-reflexes since B's current favourite activity is throwing every toy he can get his hands on after playing with it for approximately three seconds, and attempting to maintain some sort of sanity during the dreaded GCSEs. I was working for a few months as an SEN planning co-ordinator for the local authority while applying for educational psychology training-which almost killed me, by the way- the whole process was brutal. 
Read more