Too much pressure to have the ‘perfect’ week off

As I sit and write this week’s column, we are nearly halfway through, and so far so good. In fact, so far it has been very much a relaxed affair.
DucksDucks
Ducks

Andrew and Stephen have been away for a few days visiting friends and the old haunts where we used to live in Dorset. Stephen, my eldest son, was born in Dorchester and has wanted to go and see his first home etc., for such a long time. We left when he was only five months old. So Andrew took him for a mini-break while I’ve had a relaxing time with Tom.

We’ve kept things simple at home and have tried to stick to our old routines. We went to town and to Tom’s favourite cafe, The Novel Cafe. We also went to the City Museum and we went and watched (again) Hotel Transylvania 2, he loves it.

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What he has really enjoyed, though, is the walk to the canal to feed the ducks and to see the canal boats. He even declined the offer of eating cake at the Shore Cafe.

Jo WorganJo Worgan
Jo Worgan

Many families do struggle through the holidays, due to change in routine, it can be incredibly difficult for children on the spectrum. Change increases anxieties, everything is just unpredictable and ‘different’.

I also sometimes think I need to cram in as much as I can into the holidays, but in fact what we need to do is to have some relaxation time, some time off. Tom especially needs this in the first few days after school has finished. To be honest, though, we all do. It was lovely the other day just to walk down to the canal and feed the ducks, something so simple, yet Tom absolutely loved it.

I think sometimes we can put too much pressure on ourselves to have the perfect week off, it can be very difficult, especially with a child who is struggling as they are out of their normal routine. This week for us, all pressure is off, I am just enjoying it. Today we went to Sainsbury’s and once again Tom looked at all of the Halloween decorations. I told him we would go back and he could choose a few things. He was made up with this.

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