Sometimes, It Is Just Hard...

I had a lovely post planned to go up tonight. I'd prepared a pretty graphic to go with it, with a quote that I thought might brighten your day or inspire you to share it.

That's all gone out the window.

Instead, I've spent my evening going through my daughter's reports, looking for some nuggets of wisdom that might be of help to her support and class teachers in school. It hasn't been a great week in school, with the rising anxiety levels we've had at home for months starting to spill over into class time. On one level, I suppose I'm glad that Sophie's school are finally getting a taste of the challenges we have to deal with at home on a daily level. She is a typical 'Aspie' girl, who is a master at making in school and tries her hardest to fit in with the other girls in her class. Unfortunately, this need of hers to bottle it all up means that we usually get the brunt of any negative behaviours at home. Until now, I have a feeling her teachers have sometimes thought that I was over-dramatic at times, seeing autism everywhere because of the job I do!

I always hate rereading all the things she finds challenging or struggles with. It's probably the main reason I haven't been able to manage to finish the DCA application I started during the first lockdown, more than 6 months ago! It goes against everything I believe in as a parent and as an educator to look at all the negatives about a child. To reduce the wonderful, funny, bubbly, loving, clever little bundle of love that I know down to a list of percentiles and deficits.

I don't have any easy solutions to this, unfortunately. Sometimes life as a parent to a child with additional needs is just a bit shitty.

But here's a quote anyway. Sometimes a bit of inspo is all we have!

XXX