Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Morning Madness 02.03.07


This morning was a mixture of sadness and frustration. Emily was getting ready to go to the funeral of her special friend Charles. She chose to go with her friends rather than me, I'm sure she was right, but I feel so inadequate to support her. She bought a nice purple top to wear, it was his favourite colour. I can't imagine how his family are finding the strength to cope.

Laura headed to school with all her art coursework, it has to be handed in for marking. She has worked very hard on it and I think it is good, but I can tell she is anxious about it. She sets herself very high standards and she is more critical of herself than is good for her.

Mornings with Sam are never easy, but this week has been increasingly challenging. Yesterday he made cookies with Laura and his school trousers ended up covered in cookie dough. As usual I got his clean clothes ready last night and set them out ready for him. This morning a 'Tasmanian Devil' with wild hair appeared in the lounge apparently dressed and ready for school. On closer inspection he was wearing yesterday's clothes and when required to go back and start again he produced a tantrum that even Robbie couldn't emulate. It seemed almost as if his speech and movement had been flicked to fast forward.

When he was eventually washed and dressed to my satisfaction we encountered another problem. Sam absolutely refuses to have school dinners, it has nothing to do with the 'magic finger' payment system, it is about his unwillingness to queue. I really struggle with crowds and I actively avoid busy places, so I have some sympathy with Sam, but I suspect this is another aspect of his autistic syndrome disorder. I really don't know how to help him, but I want to help him overcome the problem, otherwise his life will be really restricted.

I dropped him off looking relatively neat and tidy, but he will emerge from school this afternoon looking as if he has been dragged through a hedge backwards. Why do some people always look clean and neat while others couldn't look smart for more than five minutes if their life depended on it?

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