Easter, as with pretty much any freaking holiday that we celebrate, puts my wife and I into a position where we need to decide whether we go to see family or stay at home.
At its most basic level, this is the choice between dealing with major fallout, or limiting the amount of fallout we have to deal with.
When we go to holiday functions with family, we all have a good time while we're there. The problem arises when the boys become overstimulated and right about the time we get home, the meltdowns begin. I'm not sure there's ever been a holiday for us, where this wasn't an issue,
As for this Easter, we will be going to celebrate with my family. The boys will have an Easter Egg hunt and we'll get to visit with family. It's not a bad deal and frankly, we truly value spending time with our family.
With that being said, there are some things to consider, because Lizze and I have to be able to survive in order to take care of the boys.
The boys are already overstimulated from all the excitement from yesterday's Easter fun with Lizze's parents. Emmett is running a fever of 101.4°F and hasn't exactly been a great deal of fun to be around. He's miserable, even though the fever most likely isn't related to actual illness.
Elliott didn't fall asleep until almost 1:30 AM because he wasn't feeling well.
Gavin's almost always in a good mood and while he rarely melts down over anything, overstimulation does lead to him decompensating. Kids with Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia, both of which he has, will often decompensate when they get overly excited. Even purely positive events that cause excitement, can lead to bad things.
While Gavin's generally been very happy, he's experiencing more and more regression.
Anyway, our goal is to go to our family function, for at least a little bit. I don't get to see my Grandmother very often and neither do the boys. I also would like to visit my Grandfather, because he's still in the hospital. He's been living with my parents, which is really awesome because we get to see him all the time now. The hospital is just down the street from us, so it should be something we can pull off, assuming everyone is feeling okay.
As with every holiday before this, despite our best efforts, we will experience fallout no matter what. All we can do is seek to limit it as much as possible, not only for our sanity, but more importantly, for the boys.
How do you handle the holidays in your family? Do you stay home and do calm and quiet? Do you throw caution to the wind, say fuck it, and celebrate the shit out whatever holiday your in? How do your kids cope? How do you preserve your sanity?
Please leave your thoughts below in the comments. I'd love to hear your story... ☺
