Today's Victory Archives - Page 3 of 6

Today’s Victory: Spending Time Together

It's been a rough day, but that's nothing new. On days like today, it's not always easy to focus on the positive. Having said that, I'm really pushing myself to do this on a daily basis because it's important. There a quite a few things that caused a shit-ton of stress and anxiety, but there's always something that can be viewed as a victory. Sometimes I need to look harder than others but there's always something. Today's victory is going to go to Mr. Gavin. He's really struggling with life right now, and so I feel it's very important not to overlook the positives when they come around. This particular victory might not seem like much on the surface but if you're an Autism parent, I suspect you'll understand. I've…

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July 22, 2019

My thoughts / Today's Victory

Today’s Victory: Being patient when things didn’t go his way at @GameStop

It's been a long day here at The Autism Dad house. I'm feeling all kinds of stressed out for various reasons but there is something that I want to celebrate tonight before I call it a day. As you might recall, Emmett turned 11 years old on June 26th, and you may also recall that he couldn't decide what he wanted for his birthday. We've been trying for over a month to figure out his birthday present, but he wasn't ready to make a decision. That all changed today. Emmett decided that he wanted his own Xbox One controller, so he could use it with his phone. We all play Minecraft together. I play on the Xbox, and the boys join from their phones. Using a controller with their phones…

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July 21, 2019

My thoughts / Today's Victory

Today’s Victory: Packed in the car like sardines

I'm my very first Today's Victory post in a while; I want to celebrate my kids. My life is indeed difficult, and my kids are challenging to say the least. At the same time, they're amazing, brilliant, kind, compassionate, loving, and they never cease to amaze me. We had a roller coaster kinda day today. Lizze had an unexpected visit to the dentist because she thought she broke a tooth. Fortunately, it was just a broken filling, and it's all fixed. That in and of itself is something to be grateful for. 😊 Having said that, I'm choosing to celebrate how well the kids did in the car, while we waited for Lizze to be seen by the dentist. None of the kids had planned on having to go anywhere…

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July 20, 2019

My thoughts / Today's Victory

Remembering to focus on the positive

I used to do something called Today's Victory. It's basically where I close the day off by focusing on something positive from our day. Over the years, I sorta forgot about it, and much of that was due to my ongoing war with depression. It was harder for me to find the positive. Self-care isn't just about taking care of your physical health but also taking care of your emotional health as well. One of the reasons I pushed so hard to focus on the positive is because when I did that, I was better able to combat the overwhelming sense of despair I was feeling. Being an Autism Dad is not easy. It's not. Despair has a way of creeping up and taking root without really making its presence…

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July 19, 2019

Gavin / My thoughts / Today's Victory

We are celebrating a pretty awesome victory tonight

I wanted to drop a quick line and update everyone on how Gavin did today. I've been talking recently about how Gavin is struggling with his temper or rather controlling it. He's got a very, very short fuse on a good day and no fuse on most others. He's been getting violent and aggressive when something doesn't go the way he expects it to. The past few days have been very challenging because he's exploded on more than a few occasions, and that creates stress for everyone. Most of Gavin's life was spent bouncing from one violent, self-injurious meltdown to another. All of us have been traumatized by Gavin's behaviors over the years, but he's been doing so much better as he's gotten older. Part of the issue with this…

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July 19, 2019

ADHD / Akron Children's Hospital / Emmett John / Pediatrics / Today's Victory

Today’s Victory: The Good, The Concerning and The Cause for Celebration

Yesterday after picking the kids up from school, I dropped Elliott off at home before taking Emmett to an ADHD med-check. When a child is on ADHD medication, there are frequent medication checks for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it's about making sure the medication is still the correct medication for the child in question, the dose is still correct, the child is benefiting from the medication and updating the doctor of any changes in the child's life that should be noted. Secondly, med-checks occur because ADHD medications are usually highly controlled substances and you can't get refills without an appointment. That's just the way it is and while it can be a pain in the ass at times, it's the right approach. We're very careful with medications…

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March 14, 2019

Autism Parenting Insight / My thoughts / Today's Victory

As an #Autism parent, I have to celebrate the wins, even if no one else gets it

I know yesterday was a rough one for me and I was run pretty ragged but there were some positives. I wanted to quickly share one of those positives with you and encourage you to try and focus on the positives in your life. ☺ One of the big frustrations I have at home is the amount of screen time the kids have. In a more typical situation, it's much easier to limit that screen time and sorta tamp it down to a more reasonable level. Most kids don't like the idea of giving up screen time in general. For kids with Autism, it's a much more complicated situation and I know many of you out there may shudder at the idea of taking your child's tablet away. It's not…

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October 2, 2018

Elliott / My thoughts / School / Today's Victory / Victories

A MAJOR Victory flew under the radar yesterday

Yesterday was a rather challenging day for me personally, but I muddled my way through it. In all the frustration, stress and otherwise chaotic events of yesterday, something didn't get mentioned that should have. For years we've struggled with Elliott and homework. It didn't matter what it was or how much he had, it was a nightmare. There were plenty of times I was hanging on by a thread because the whole homework thing was too much. I don't know what happened or when it actually began but Elliott's attitude towards homework has changed. He does his homework right away and without issue. In fact, lately he's been working on his homework on the way home from school, like you see in the picture above. This deserves to be mentioned…

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April 4, 2018