Was the plan to spend some family time at the aquarium? Yep. Did I care that K and I had to make a quick escape? Nope!
That time away allowed us to return to the aquarium (which had thankfully gotten LESS crowded after our carousel trip and snack stop), and K had no issues.
It's fun to try and open all the touchscreen things at once! |
Eskimo kissing a baby seal on the screen. Almost too much cute. |
She was having fun, and was happy. B was having fun, and was happy. All that matters!
We even all went back to the carousel after, for a couple more rides.
But then Tuesday happened.
K had been asking to go ice skating for a while, so we decided to go New Years Eve day. Now, I am not a skater. My feet hurt almost immediately upon putting them in skates, and I am not known to be the most coordinated person. Still, the kids were excited, so we all went.
At first things were OK. K was having a bit of a difficult time, and falling a lot, but was handling it well.
When things were still OK. |
B was a speed demon with his crate. A speed demon who didn't exactly look where he was going ;) |
I was pretty mortified. I know we're supposed to take it all in stride, and not let "the staring" get to us. I know we are supposed to be OK when things downhill, because our kids are autistic, and they aren't doing anything on purpose (K has told me through tears, before, that she can't control her body".) I know I should have stayed perfectly calm while trying to tear off my rental skates to chase after my kid, and I know I shouldn't have allowed myself to get angry as she stood there screaming at me.
I mean, that's what perfect parents do, right? At least that's what I'm told.
Well, I'm not perfect, so there was panic, and embarrassment, and anger, and me gathering our things to wait in the car until the rest of our party was done skating. There was me telling K I couldn't talk to her right then because I needed to cool off. There was me not being able to find any silver lining, and just wanting to go home and hide under the covers.
And of course I felt guilty. I did pretty much everything "wrong". I know there are some who wouldn't hold back on their attacks towards me because of the choices I made in the moment. I'm sure there's even one or two who would say I did some deep seated damage to my child's psyche. Trust me, those things don't even come close to plain old mama guilt.
It was just a bad day.
But...
We're allowed bad days. They happen. Whether your have a child with special needs or not. Sometimes there just isn't a silver lining, and no way to salvage what happened. Sometimes everything goes wrong, and the day just sucks.
It doesn't make us bad parents. Not in the least. We love our kids. We are great parents to our kids. We are also human. Having an autistic child doesn't give you superpowers. Sorry.
So, there it is. The honest truth. Sometimes you just have to pack it in and remember tomorrow is another day. And that's OK.
Hey, you didn't handle it wrong. You handled it. A bad day is just a bad day. We all have them, we all handle them badly sometimes. So what. You're there, you're trying to make it okay for her however you can, you're doing great.
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