Family Fun

When your child first gets diagnosed, it can feel totally overwhelming.  Naturally, all of your focus goes to them and trying to figure out a gameplan for how you will help them. But your special needs child is just one member of your family.  It is such a simple idea, but one we need to remember: take care of yourself. Continue to have family get-togethers, invite friends over, meet at the park with another parent to have coffee while the kids play. You need that! It is good for your soul and when you are happier and more relaxed, you’re modeling that behavior for your little one. Believe it or not, there are tons of opportunities for learning in these kinds of situations.

On this particular day, my husband’s friend took Michael under his wing and you can see him in one picture shielding Michael’s eyes from water spray while going on the attack in the water gun fight. Michael had a blast!

If you had asked me before that day, would Michael like a water gun fight, I would never have predicted that he would LOVE it.  The lesson is to let go a little and try things. Could he have hated it and melted down? Yes, but if he never had the opportunity to try, how would we know? You really can’t know what your child wants, likes and thinks until they can express themselves. If they can’t tell you with words, let them try things (within reason) and watch their reactions.  It turns out, Michael loves water guns. What will your child love?

Big ideas:

1. Take care of yourself too!
2. Let go a little and try new things.