Special Needs Parenting Archives - Page 70 of 520

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore

We had a pretty decent night last night. I'm trying to get us into a routine because the more structure I can provide for my kids, the better off they're going to be. Kids with Autism thrive on structure, routine and predictability. At the moment, their lives are chaos and that's making a bad situation worse. Both Elliott and Emmett were struggling this morning, especially Elliott. Elliott's a mess right now and had a difficult time sleeping because he was so worried about school today. I don't know what the right thing to do here is and all I can do is that I feel is best in the moment. It's for that reason, I kept the kids home today. Having said that, there's a plan in place to help…

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August 27, 2019

Things didn’t go so well at school

I know in an earlier post, I was optimistic about Elliott making it through the day at school. Here's the background on that. Unfortunately, Elliott left school very upset this afternoon. He wanted to come home but didn't speak up because he didn't want to disrupt his class. I'm not sure what that's all about. When I called the school after dropping him off, and convincing him to stay in the morning, it was a no news is good news kinda thing.. Elliott and Emmett were both still in class and they hadn't asked to go home. If they had, their teachers would have immediately sent them to the office so they could call me. Emmett did fine but as I said, Elliott was very upset. I don't know what…

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August 26, 2019

Divorce / My thoughts / New Beginnings

I thought I’d share some important goals I’ve set for myself as we rebuild our lives

Things have been a bit heavy lately and so I thought I would change things up a bit and talk about some of the goals I'm setting for myself going forward. First and foremost, my main goal is to keep the kids above water until they can swim on their own. That goes without saying, but I said it anyway. I want to make our home as comfortable and accessible for them as I possibly can. That means some work needs to be done but not too much because of another goal a few paragraphs from now. One of my main goals is to make sure I take care of myself. It's so easy to become overcome by grief or get lost in helping my kids, that I forget to…

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August 26, 2019

Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / New Beginnings

I’m feeling a little better about today

I know we had a rough morning because I was there. That said, I'm feeling a little better about things because I'm seeing some positives. First of all, Gavin's IVIG infusion went very well. He's struggling to do it himself, and for right now, I'm not going to push him. It's easier if I do it for him, at least for the time being. There was no leaking today and I believe it took less than an hour to complete. By comparison, last Friday's infusion took over four hours. This is definitely a positive thing. Second, I called the school to check on the boys, and they seem to be doing okay. Both boys have been in their respective classrooms, and there's been no contact with the office, meaning the…

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August 26, 2019

Elliott / Emmett John / My thoughts / New Beginnings

We’ve had an absolutely heartbreaking morning

I've mentioned many times in regards to my wife leaving that the kids and I are going to have good days and we're going to have bad days. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been lucky enough to have more good days than bad. Unfortunately, today is a bad one. Our morning started out well, and then it very quickly fell apart. While getting ready for school, Emmett had a very emotional breakdown and became inconsolable. He screamed things about how we're a broken family and how other families are happy and having fun, while we're traumatized. Those are his words. He said a few other things but you get the point. He's demanding answers to things that only his mom can answer, but probably won't and rightfully so.…

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August 26, 2019

My thoughts / New Beginnings

I wasn’t sure how this would turn out

We had a pretty good weekend, and I'm grateful for that. I survived my first birthday as a single Dad, and the boys had a pleasant visit with their mom. Those are all very positive things. While the boys we're gone, I worked on the house and made some decent progress. I also made it to the grocery store and picked up what I needed to make school lunches for the week. I've been making homemade pepperoni rolls out of pretzel rolls, and the kids love them. It's a nice change from pizza every day. When the boys got home from their visit, we put the pepperoni rolls together, and I baked them. It's nice letting them be a part of the process because they're more excited about it and…

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August 25, 2019

My thoughts / New Beginnings

It’s been a positive day

I made some serious progress on the house today while the kids were gone. There's still a lot of work to be done but progress is progress. As far as I can tell, the boys had a great visit with their mom, and that's awesome. I want them to have a good relationship, and I'm glad they had a good time. We haven't worked out a visitation schedule yet because her situation is complicated and a standard plan will not work. Anyway, the boys had fun, and now we need to gut the ferret cage and make it smell better.

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August 25, 2019

My thoughts / New Beginnings

The kids have their 2nd visit with their mom today

It's going to be a quiet day for me. The kids are going to visit their Mom for the afternoon. They're leaving a little before lunch and will be home in time for dinner. That gives me the day to myself. I'm not super thrilled about having the day to myself cause I'll miss the kids, but it will give me a chance to watch John Wick 3. I'm stoked about that for sure. I need to focus on putting the house back together, and I have to get stuff for lunches. I'd like to have all that done before they get home. I don't know what kind of mood they're going to be in when they get back, so I want to let them come home and chill. Maybe…

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August 25, 2019