Just breathe!

It's been a rough couple of weeks on the parenting-a-child-with-ASD-front. We're the second week into Term 3 and it always seems to take Amy a week or two to resettle after the hols. She's done remarkably well at Kindy, however. It's just when she gets home that the wheels start to fall off!

Everything seems to be connected - eating, sleeping, and toileting on how compliant or non-compliant she is. She's been constipated, not eating all her meals and has been quite unsettled at night. She's been exhausted. She has had a cold for quite a few days now and the sick factor only adds fuel to the fire.

Basically I feel as if I have been living with an addict who causes havoc in the home with mood swings, oppositional behaviour, aggression and an unsettled disposition! Thankfully I have the mornings during school term to myself so I can re-energise. All Mums should have time-outs but those with children with special needs - especially so.

I love my daughter so very much but when she's in one of her "phases" - of being like a four year old drug-addict; I just feel so beaten, exhausted, frustrated and trapped! I am always relieved on these days when I hear the sound of a bike scrunching the gravel on our driveway when my husband gets home at 4.35pm!

Amy's teacher's aide has been teaching her to breathe when she gets stressed at Kindy. I only know this because Amy proceeded to take deep breaths the other day when she was "having a moment" at home. I need to do the same! There is no use getting wound up with a child on the spectrum who is in the crux of her behaviours. Easier said than done, sometimes.

Last night I was sorting through some old boxes in the garage and I found something I wrote when I was working with special needs kids in a children's camp in the USA: "Never take the behaviour personally." Hmmm, very insightful for a twenty-six year old non-Mum, I thought!

Other Mums out there often remark how patient I seem to be with Amy. I don't know, I am no saint. I lose my rag like any parent. For the most part I think Amy and I have a good mother-daughter relationship. Even though the last week or so has been filled with many challenges, nothing beats having my girl wrap her arms around me and ask me for a cuddle.