Managing Autism - A Personal View

After a hectic first night, and visits from both kids during the night I finally have the feeling that I am getting on top of everything. I have the kitchen sparkling from the night before, living room now resembles a living room and not a rubbish tip - and the kids have settled down to breakfast with out even a wimper.

At this point I am quite pleased with myself… I have not had to call anyone yet (Elissa, other family, or even emergency services!) have managed to keep the house in a relative clean state with no major spills and most importantly of all the kids behaviour is leaning more towards good than evil!…. I can actually do this!!! A win for all the dads out there.

I knew it couldn’t last…………………………………

As the morning unfolded, I stuck to my cunning plan that would enable me to watch todays game with limited interuptions - run the little guys off their feet so that they were so exhausted that they would fall asleep, or at the very least sit quitely and play. (I know I was dreaming, but I was desperate!!)

We went to the pool, then the play centre, walked to the shops for some lunch ( they were tiring, but not giving up yet) back to the park and they finally decided that they wanted to go home - success!!!! and just in time because the game started in 1 hour.

Both Jack and Anna were being very quiet, and announced to me that they wanted to go to Jack’s room for some quiet games time. What a great idea I thought, and with my blessing the kids trotted off to play in Jack’s room. I turned the game on and settled in for the afternoon quite pleased with myself. About 5 min into the game, I got the munchies - went to the pantry to get the snacks and noticed that something was missing. After searching the entire cupboard, I thought the impossible must have occured…… I walk slowly down to Jacks room, still not quite believing that they could out smart me…… Yep, there they are blanket spread out and picnic in place playing beautifully - who wouldn’t be when your picnic consists of mars bars, jelly babies, and the worst of all an empty packet of cheezels!!!!!

Swear words enter my mind! I clear the food as fast as I can with Elissa’s words ringing in my ears, “Whatever you feed them, avoid cheezels at all costs, Jack will be swinging from the light fittings if he even smells them in the house.”

My attempt to return to the game - no chance… My idea of the kids having a quiet afternoon - disappears faster than I can clear the food from Jack’s bedroom floor… Damage control being the only option now with the effect of the cheezels already kicking in…

One more night…

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under Dad's View, Personal Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.