Preparing for the Holidays
In America we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27. This holiday marks the official beginning of the holiday season. During this time, many parents with challenging or special needs children face even more obstacles.
Today, on the A Wild Ride blog, I'd like to share this idea from Terri Mauro and her Special- Needs blog on About.com. I have used this escape plan myself millions of times and although I resented "having to leave the party" I was always happy I did.
Make an escape plan. Better to leave before things go bad than stick it out and live to regret it. If you're spending the holiday at a home other than your own, arrange a time limit or a signal ahead of time and observe it -- even if it means missing the pumpkin pie. If your child seems to be coping better than expected, you can always extend the deadline, but be ready to split at a moment's notice. If at all possible, when your holiday travels involve such a distance that you'll have to stay overnight, get a hotel room. Your child (and you) will need someplace quiet and chaos-free to decompress after so much family exposure. Then again, if everybody's coming over to your house for dinner, make your child's room off-limits to everybody but him or her, and encourage your child to use it as a refuge when things get overwhelming.
