J and I are at my parents, staying overnight and then taking my mom back with us in the morning. Sheś coming for some follow up doctors appointments because for over 7 years she has been without a family physician in her town. So we have been doing this jaunt (3 hours each way) a lot lately because she also doesn't drive.
Usually I bring both boys and I will say honestly that it is not exactly an enjoyable or relaxing experience. C tries hard but he is out of his element. Anytime we are away from home his anxiety shoots through the roof, add to that his excitement to hang out and play with his two cousins (and his ONLY cousins) that live 2 streets over from my parents and he is a ball of pure energy. He is getting better, rarely does anyone get hurt anymore. But I have to be on the ball, constantly nearby, ready to intervene when his OCD and the need for things to be ¨just right¨ threatens to turn physical.
This time, C decided not to come. He hasn´t been sleeping as well as we lead up to school and his OCD is in overdrive. I was so proud (and shocked) when I suggested he might want to stay home with Dad and he answered"yeah, I think thatś a good idea¨. More importantly, this morning as we got ready to leave he STILL thought it was a good idea not to come. I really thought he would have changed his mind.
So off J and I went. I got to listen to J ask Äre we there yet?" over and over and the best was ¨Mom, can you pull over? I´m a little tired of you driving and I want to rest¨. Once we got here all was good. He was embraced by his cousins, 7 &11, and basically I haven´t seen him since. I almost don´t know what to do with myself. How do other parents do it?
The best part? Heś going to have a sleepover with his cousins at their house (usually because of C´s needs we end up with all the kids wherever we are). He is soooo excited and I am happy he has them all to himself for once. They are all playing so nicely and they even made him a wagon to pull his stuffed monkey out of cardboard and other craft supplies. oooooh, crafty kids - I don´t have any of those either!
Itś all good
p.s. sorry for weird punctuation, there´s obviously something wrong with parents keyboard
That's awesome he made that choice himself -- sure he realises the reason he even had to make that decision is because of his OCD and all, but at least perhaps he'll feel better knowing he chose it. So he has some control, which I would think, eases life a bit for a child with OCD.
ReplyDeleteAlso so happy to hear your younger one got time with cousins alone. It's intriguing watching how kids interact when you mix up the bunch. I'm interested to see my dd with kids w/out ds around this fall. I'm not sure if she'll be the bully or a loner, but I suspect it'll be one of the other ;)
Thanks again for the tag!
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