Tactical Tantrums

Holidays used to be so hard for our family, especially the ones with fireworks, with PTSD and Autism, the fourth was never our best day. But this year was so different and here are a few things that helped us

1. Going early and sitting away from others. Made sure too bring blankets and bug spray, we also brought Uno and Chess this year and it helped when we needed something extra to do and couldn’t just stim.

2. Staying in the same place until after about ten minutes AFTER the fireworks end. We used to leave early and it was always a disaster. This was better, we did sparklers and waited for the rush to leave and got home way quicker than last year with better attitudes too!

3. Listening to each other and understanding when someone needed anything “extra”, maybe little bro needed a hug even though it was ninety degrees, or an extra juice box, or even when mom accidentally made a bad move in chess and our autistic child who would have had a meltdown instead calmly explained why she couldn’t do that.

Many holidays ended poorly but this was different, I cried tears of joy this July for the growth, beauty and love between our little family and pray someday you experience this too.

XO,

Holly & Ken