Going on holiday with an autistic child is a big deal. Itโs a big deal for the child too. A small detail often over looked when booking.
Not knowing what it will be like and the loss of familiar routines can have a disastrous effect on anxiety. New sensory experiences like the softness of the pillow and smell of bed sheets can easily be meltdown triggers.
Being a parent often takes back seat to being a carer first and foremost, trying your best to provide reassurance and meet emotional and mental health needs.
Itโs even harder when a parent also has autism, affected in many of the same ways but needing to put aside their own needs to put on a brave face and provide reassurance with absolute confidence and certainty. Even though they wished someone would do the same for them.
Itโs probably not great to say this, but sometimes I wish every family had a disabled child and no grandparents to help, just for a little while to really understand what itโs like. But Iโm sure there are families out there with more severe care needs that feel the same about us.
Iโm obviously exhausted to write such a thing, and I mean no offence to everyone else struggling to do their best.
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Frank Ray Consulting. Software requirements for agile development teams, particularly remote, outsourced and offshore development teams working in financial services. |