My husband and eldest son have returned from their camping trip this evening and the calm that has reigned in our house for 3 days has quickly disappeared. Unfortunately this is just what happens when routine is changed for our 2 children with ASD. Our youngest son is flitting between tears, tantrums and the need to watch the film 'Rise of the Guardians' to keep calm. He saw it for the first time on Saturday and he has now watched it 5 times. A similar pattern occurs every time a new film becomes a firm favourite. It becomes an obsession and is watched on a loop. At the moment it is acting as a comfort blanket for him until he copes again with everyone being back. Our daughter is shouting and screaming as her solitude has been disturbed.
They were both fully aware that our house would be back to normal tonight and it is not that they don't like everyone being together again but it takes them time to get used to everyone being around again.
We realised this from an early age with our daughter as when she was a toddler my husband would go away on business trips each month with work. She would refuse to talk to him for days - at the time we had no idea that this was connected with her need for routine and autism. Our youngest son followed a similar pattern but took it to greater extremes. In the past I have had to sit upstairs with our son until he falls asleep if my husband has been away for a few days. He could not cope being in the same room as him, until he learnt to accept that Daddy was home again.
With any luck ‘normality’ will reign again in our house in
the morning!!
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