My poor little B6 has had a terribly rough few weeks. The school was not able to tell us any information about his new classes this year at the end of last year so he has spent the last few weeks worrying himself sick (and driving me crazy) and asking me if I know his teachers name, his room, his seat, his bag etc etc etc. Unfortunately the teachers were not able to give me these details so I could not pass them onto him. I could not create a social story to explain it to him for the last three weeks. I could not mention his teacher and her name a million times over the holidays. I had nothing.
So the reaction to going back to school was nothing but devastating. That is an understatement to say the least. The little one has been up till three am each morning and only falling asleep when he is falling literally off his feet with exhaustion. It is so very hard to watch as his mother and I am so helpless to offer him help when there is nothing I can do. He has bitten his fingernails (and his toe nails) down to the point of them bleeding so he is walking around with gloves and socks on his hands and feet with band aids on them all underneath.
On top of all that he is simply not eating and is hitting me and his brothers which is totally out of character of this beautiful natured little man.
So today I told the school I am not doing this. That we need everything set up and ready for our little man before he will be returning to school. The class room set up, his teacher in place and his seat waiting for him. That is what my little man needed. Tonight he is restful. He is not asleep but he has settled which is wonderful compared to where we have been the last few weeks.
I have learnt a load of things this time around that I hope and pray I can avoid next school holidays and just take it a day at a time. A moment of that day even. We will get there it will just take us a little while to get there.
The holidays have been exhausting around here. It has also been enjoyable though. Relaxing even, which I know is a total contradiction in itself. I have had a trillion things to get done but when I took them things on my new found social (I can do anything) brain forgot that I would be doing all of those things with three autistic children under my feet. Have not had too much of a productive break.
But it all starts again on Monday, Bryce is back at school(Lord please give me strength 
), D19 and I are going back to school and work and I am somehow going to add 800 kilometres of travel and forty hours of work and study into this craziness. 
All of that on my normal three to four hours of sleep a night (and that is on a good night). But I will do it and we will make all of this families dreams come true. I know I only have to work at this speed for a couple more years and school will be finished the retreat will be well on its way to being finished and my darling boys will have me there every day, every minute and forever.
Foundations are hard to build I am finding out because this foundation I am building – the foundation for the rest of our life is just exhausting but we will get there. Foundations have to be built strong and resilient and if there is anything I am teacher these spectacular boys of mine, I am teaching them that.
How has your return to work and school week been for you and your family this year? What do you do that works for your family and lowers the stress for our children returning to school?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
As an early years teacher who has taught children with Autism, my heart breaks that your little one (and you) had to go through with that. Most schools SHOULD have all that information and be able to pass it to you before school starts! And furthermore, the poor little guy needs some visual cues at his table so he knows what he is expected to do and the routine for the day. I know you don’t need to be told that, but it sounds like the school does.
Good luck! If you ever need advice or a chat from a teacher’s point of view. drop me a line. I’d be happy to help.
Angela East (@schoolofmum) recently posted..No-cooking Playdough (Guest Post by Salz Dummy Spit)
Ty Angela for your comment which I TOTALLY agreed with. I think normally this is something they would have had in place but his beloved teacher was off sick the last few weeks and there was a change over of principals. I think it all just fell through the cracks.
Thankfully though he is doing wonderfully. He has a new male teacher that he is loving and has settled again after a couple of days. So even though we had a rough Monday the last two days have been great. (Touch wood).
Thankyou for your offer of support I might take you up on it. Would love to talk to you about your experiences with teacher if you would be interested please shoot me an email at admin@mumtalksautism.com
Thanks again
MTA