She Broke😂

Long, long ago, when my 19 and 20 year old children were aged between six and 18 years old, I had no school holidays except for when I was recovering from surgery, or when I was sick, or when the children were sick. It was lovely, because it was the children’s choice.

I should have known they were autistic!

My oldest two told me as teenagers that they couldn’t not do school. The concept of a ‘holiday’ was good, but living it was hell. They needed to do school. They didn’t know what to do. They had the library, they had outings, as they grew older they could go on trips out alone, but nope, school had to happen. Only this morning as I type do I realize that what they were saying was that they missed the routine and needed it.

I changed things around for us to do school through the year, by reducing the daily work load and powering through daily. It wasn’t that bad physically because they were self teaching anyway. My body could handle our school field trips if I rested as soon as we returned, and all was good.

Enter my middle two. Their disorders and challenges make school very difficult for them anyway and so school work isn’t pleasant no matter how easy you make it. They were happy when I told them it was holiday time again. With biggest sister here, I figured they might as well have an official school break for two weeks. The only formal thing they’ve been doing is vision work at home, and attending their occupational and vision therapy sessions. I’ve also focused on fine motor skills and eye hand coordination with the crafts and cutting, gluing and colouring in, hand puppet making tasks I’ve given them daily.

Yeah, it’s not much of a holiday for me. Moderate to severe ADHD children need supervised work to keep them safe. Low registration children like the one above, can’t enjoy living normal life.

But I knew…Our talkative twin isn’t like the middle two.

Today is day four of their holiday and she broke. Meanwhile, when the older one would do vision, I’d bring her in for abbreviated school time. But nope, today she had enough. “When are we doing school? After we go for a drive or now?”

My options. Now or later? There’s no ‘no’ option.

And it had to be when I’ve woken in hell. Sleep was awful. Everything was in pain, eyes and nose and throat drier than ever. Bones sore in places you never think of. I wanted to stay warm in bed. It’s the warmest place for me and Sjögren’s people need warmth else the skin is even more easily damaged, infection can creep into the cracks of the skin, and fingers react badly to cold with swelling and pain. Sounds like AS too, that last part! Also, it’s not like I can humidify the entire house. I need to create moisture as the norm is not enough.

But, I had to get up and get dressed because I’m off to attend my girl’s feedback session after her DISCO questionnaire. I really hope the psychologist doesn’t talk for ages, folk. I really prefer just reading a report than the way they talk down to you. It’s ok for the parents who are new to the journey. But man, I’ve had four diagnosed children. I know what a low percentile means… And I need to come back and teach.😉