The holidays are usually my favorite time of year. This year a new set of challenges have made for a very difficult holiday season. My family and I are staying in a hotel for almost 2 weeks while we visit family for Christmas. Now 2 adults and 3 young kids in a hotel room is stressful enough on it’s own. My son Tommy is Autistic and is what some people call a runner (I like to think of him as more of an explorer). He will try and leave without an adult and he will just keep going. As you may have guessed, I now wake up constantly during the night in a panic thinking my child may have gotten up in the middle of the night and disappeared. On top of that, now my autistic child is in a new strange environment and his sleep patterns are all out of whack. 3 days in a row now I have either not gone to bed until 2 AM or I have had to wake up at 4:30AM after getting almost no sleep because that is when he chose to get up for the day. We have been up since about 430 this morning. By WE I mean Tom and I. My husband and other kids are still sleeping….in the same room…..with my yipping explorer and his loud iPad. Needless to say, now my husband (who NEVER gets up with Tommy or stays up with Tommy) is not a happy camper either because his precious beauty sleep is being interrupted. Instead of trying to help he is just critizing me for being on my phone. Yesterday was no better either. It consisted of a full day of trying to keep my son from sticking his fingers in his mouth while my husband drove us all around in the car ( as if we hadn’t all been in the car for hours of traveling for 2 days before that). Oh, let’s not forget how I almost had a meltdown of my own in the line at a chocolate store we visited. My son has a very hard time standing still (unless its in front of an iPad) . I just wanted to take a short tour of the chocolate factory which only lasted about 4 minutes because Tom couldn’t stand still and not yip ( there was an echo in the hallway so he just had to get in a couple of loud screams of course). I can’t tell you how many times I have had a complete stranger tell my kid to shhhhh. Seriously?!?! I don’t know you lady!!!! Don’t tell my kid what to do when I am standing right there. Then, I was standing in the line to buy some chocolate and Tommy couldn’t stand still or stop putting his hands in his mouth and I felt like the entire store was just staring at us. I was seconds away from crying right in front of everyone and the lady in front of me in line let me go before her. She will never know how much that saved me! Always be kind to strangers!!!!!!! Anyway, I could really use some encouragement in the next few days because I am having a very hard time getting in the Christmas spirit. So, comment and share and comment and share again! If you know the struggle I want to hear from you.
Thanks in advance!
TheKishMom 