Meltdowns Archives - Page 42 of 299

I’m so insanely f*cking proud of my kids this weekend

I wanted to share something cool that happened while at the grocery store this weekend. I'm always working with my kids on life skills and putting them in real-world situations, so they can learn to navigate life. Grocery shopping presents many such opportunities and I took advantage of one yesterday. As I've mentioned several times, I'm making the boys homemade pepperoni rolls for their school lunches. I buy pizza dough and sliced sandwich pepperoni every week and bake them fresh every other day. While at the store, I asked Gavin if he thought he could go to the deli and order 1lb of thin sliced, sandwich pepperoni. He said he'd try. I stood back as a reasonable distance and watched him. I was close enough that I could help him…

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November 3, 2019

My thoughts / New Beginnings

I know some won’t agree with my approach and frankly, I don’t f*cking care

Man, I didn't sleep well last night. Emmett ended up in my room pretty early on. He tried for hours to fall asleep in his bed but couldn't. As soon as his head hit the pillow, after returning to my room, ahe was out like a light. He's really struggling with feeling safe and there's a fine line between enabling that fear and helping him to work through it. I don't feel comfortable banning him from my room at night. He's been traumatized twice now and is terrified that I'm going to leave him too. How do I turn him away and force him to sleep in fear? At the same time, this obviously can't go on forever and I personally need him back in his own bed at night.…

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November 3, 2019

Inspirational Posts / My thoughts

A simple act of kindness towards a fellow #Autism parent

I was at the grocery store today with my kids. Walmart to be exact and the kids were doing pretty well. I was a little frustrated with them but truthfully, that's more on me and less than them. We were at the register, unloading the massive amount of groceries so they could be scanned and bagged. Behind us in line was a mother and her adult son. If I had to guess, I would say the son was in his twenties. What caught my attention however, was the fact that her son was Autistic. As a parent to three Autistic kids, I can usually tell. Everyone is different but there's times when I can just tell. I think many Autism parents possess that same skill set. The mother had silver…

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November 2, 2019

Emmett John / My thoughts / New Beginnings

It’s a start

I knew going into my first night sleeping alone, that it would likely be short-lived. I was right. I fell asleep around midnight and Emmett was still in his own bed. When I say I was alone in my bed, Ruby was there. She likes to sleep under the blanket, right up against my back. She's so tiny that you wouldn't know she was there if you didn't know she was there. About 3 AM, Emmett woke up and came running into my room. He made it longer than I thought he would do and while he didn't make it through the night, progress is progress. We're going to keep trying and someday, we'll make it through the night.

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November 2, 2019

Emmett John / My thoughts / New Beginnings

I’m finally sleeping alone tonight

I've been feeling a significant amount of anxiety today and it came to a head after dinner. The kids have been at each other's throats all day and Gavin will not stop talking about whatever floats into his brain. It's a lot to deal with on top of everything else. I'm pretty sure that I'm experiencing little panic attacks. I feel heart palpations and I have to really work to calm myself. Unfortunately, there's no escape from the stress and nowhere to hide. That being said, I decided that I need my bedroom to be my sanctuary. I need it to be a safe place for me to escape to when I need a time out. That means that I need to get Emmett to transition back to his own…

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November 2, 2019

My thoughts

OMG, it looked like a f*cking crime scene

It's been a really, really, really long night. Both the boys are home from school today for weird reasons. Well, Elliott's got a sinus thing and the drainage is making him sick to his stomach. He was up all night. To make things more fun, about 3AM, Emmett's nose exploded all over my bed. He gets nose bleeds sometimes and there's no reason for them. They're sorta spontaneous and unpredictable. We think it's related to his allergy meds drying him out too much. It's a pretty fine line between managing his allergies and this. Emmett finally fell asleep under a mound of blankets. Have you ever seen those movies where the guy goes to sleep and wakes up to the other side of the bed covered in blood? Yeah, it…

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November 1, 2019

My thoughts / Podcast / Season 2

(S2E4) Dr. John Kruse on what Donald Trump can teach us about adult ADHD

(S2E4) In this episode, I have a conversation with Dr. John Kruse, MD, PhD about all things ADHD, including his brand new book titled "Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder." Dr. Kruse has 25 years of psychiatric experience and specializes in treating adults with ADHD, that's right, adults. I talk with him about his new book and he debunks some of the most common myths surrounding ADHD. Learn the facts about what ADHD is and how it can seriously impact a person's life, and why he believes Donald Trump has it, you need to listen to this episode. You can find me: Website: theautismdad.com Twitter: twitter.com/the_autism_dad You can find Dr. Kruse: Website: https://www.drjohnkruse.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.kruse.7583 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrJohnKruse You can grab his…

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October 31, 2019

My thoughts

This is where I find my strength

One of the most common questions I get from people is how in the world do I manage. Often times I'm it more like this how in the fuck do you survive all this? Where do you find the strength? I'm not offended by any of these questions in any way and by answering them honestly, I've hoped that my words would provide comfort to those who are struggling. With that in mind, I wanted to put out a reminder and basically answer this question one more time, publicly. First of all, I'm no different than anyone else. My situation maybe more complicated or challenging but I'm just a Dad. I'm just one person and a flawed one at that. I don't have any superpowers or magic tricks to help…

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October 31, 2019