{"id":6703,"date":"2015-10-27T11:24:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T15:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=6703"},"modified":"2015-10-27T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T19:04:29","slug":"find-your-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2015\/10\/find-your-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Find Your Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently I had the chance to attend my 30th high school reunion (how that is possible when I am still sixteen I\u2019ll never know,) and I have a confession to make.<\/p>\n

I liked high school.<\/p>\n

I know there are probably many of you rolling your eyes right now at the fact that I both enjoyed those four years and am happy to see my classmates every half decade, and I\u2019m truly sorry if you didn\u2019t have a great experience. I grew up in a small town with a graduation class of just over two hundred, and many of the people I saw that Saturday night I\u2019ve known since I moved to Fair Haven when I was six. These are people who \u201cknew me when,\u201d who remember my parents and my brother. More importantly, they knew me when life was relatively simple, before autism came calling to my household.<\/p>\n

They knew me when I was still fun.<\/p>\n

I have to admit there were months (hell, years) after each of my kids was diagnosed that that fun girl went into hiding. I pretty much lived in fight or flight mode for a long time after my kids received their autism labels, completely caught up in therapies, dietary supplements, insomnia, and what seemed each time like an inordinate amount of crying (both theirs and mine.) Fun was not even on my radar during those periods. Survival was paramount.<\/p>\n

And as I\u2019ve slowly emerged from that dark place (twice!), I\u2019ve found over the past few years I\u2019m remembering who that girl was. Or I should say, who she is.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve decided she\u2019s going to stick around.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned over the last twelve years living with autism that almost everything with the boys is cyclical. I\u2019ve been told this is true with typically developing kids, but I would argue that most of the unpleasant aspects of child rearing most parents experience don\u2019t last until our kids are eighty, so I think I have a different perspective than 98% of the population. In truth, one of the hardest aspects of living with two kids with autism for me has been accepting that some issues will never go away. Even harder than that has been my learning to let in hope even when our situation seemed devoid of it, to entertain the possibility that whatever strife we\u2019re experiencing might eventually dissipate, or disappear. When we\u2019re going through a difficult period I\u2019ve learned to conjure up those triumphs, to cling to them, to remember things usually do improve. More importantly, I\u2019ve learned to take better care of myself.<\/p>\n

And as insignificant and silly as that may seem, that includes getting out and having fun.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re in that interminable wait period to see a developmental pediatrician, or you\u2019ve just received a diagnosis, or your teenager is now combing puberty with autism (!), make sure you take care of yourself. Whether it\u2019s yoga, a drink (or two) out with the girls, prodigious amounts of chocolate (one of my faves,) or simply staying in bed and doing nothing, carve out time for whatever pampers you and makes you happy. It may seem impossible if you are totally overwhelmed, but do whatever it takes to make that fun happen. Find that girl (or boy,) the one who stayed up past ten and didn\u2019t have a plan B (and C) for every situation with their child. Find that person who embraced life and banished dread. Find that person who envisioned endless opportunities lay ahead of them.<\/p>\n

Find your fun.<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com\/<\/em>
\nFollow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist<\/em><\/p>\n

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Recently I had the chance to attend my 30th high school reunion (how that is possible when I am still sixteen I\u2019ll never know,) and I have a confession to make. I liked high school. I know there are probably many of you rolling your eyes right now at the fact that I both enjoyed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":6704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[293,295,294],"class_list":["post-6703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-autism-awareness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Summer-15-027.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-1K7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}