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Post by Lawrence Gordon on Dec 14, 2011 8:01:49 GMT
I know I’m probably not alone in feeling like this. Like a lot of other parents, Christmas with autistic children can be extremely difficult. The change in routine, the anticipation of presents, school festivities as well as the explosion of lights, colours and noise in town can be too much for my children to cope with. As a result they struggle to regulate themselves which leads to difficult behaviour and constant arguing. Its tiring for them and tiring for me too.
We have done everything we can to reduce known triggers – avoiding social events, not going to town, using visual supports to prepare for change but quite simply unless I lived on an island devoid of communication with the outside world we have no chance of escaping Christmas. It’s everywhere. From the adverts on the telly urging us to spend, spend, spend to the corny tracks on the radio it is hard to avoid the pressure to create the perfect Christmas. It’s not that I hate Christmas, I actually quite like it. What really gets me though is how the build up to Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year which means I have to spend weeks managing two very exciteable autistic children. It’s hard work. No wonder parents (and children) get burnt out before we even get to the actual day.
So typical and the whole article in our online newspaper today. 14/12/2011
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