Staying Sane in Sensory Hell

I'm not going to lie, today has been absolutely horrid. I have NO idea what sparked today, but it was just the pits. My eldest had an attitude most of the morning ... thankfully, that broke after a phone call with her father. My two children on the autism spectrum were both in a funk. My son (with tentative Asperger's diagnosis - handling with therapy at the moment) was just meltdown city and anger over everything. He was either really up or really down. My little Monkey just had a downright AWFUL day. She was in sensory hell. She was either crying for her tablet so she could completely zone out, just crying, asking for everything to be blue (seems to be her control), asking for a hug, or refusing to talk at all. It was AWFUL.

You know, these are days that I simply want to pack it in and give up on this parenting thing. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what we had done differently today. We had a day yesterday where our schedule was messed up, but they were all fine yesterday. Or was that just the calm before the storm? I really do not know. What I do know is that I needed to do something that would prevent today from rolling into tonight and over to tomorrow.

I love this quote. I did not cite it because it is usually attributed to Martin Luther King, but there are some sources that say he wasn't the one who originally said it. However, the point stands ... even if I knew that everything would disappear tomorrow, I would keep today as normal as possible. I do this for my children ... I do this for me.

So, my normal Monday thru Friday has us up by 8am, at breakfast by 8:30am, goofing off until lunch at noon, and then some sort of afternoon activity. Today, when all but one of my children woke in a horrifically crabby mood, it was SO tempting to just say screw it, and send them back to bed. However, I KNEW that if I did that ... the odds of things getting worse were great. I stood firm.

The turbulence blew in as soon as we got home. The older two got into it with each other and with me. I finally gave in and pulled their dad in to help with the situation. One child was able to pull it together, while the other continued in a funk. I stood firm.

We had a fairly mild afternoon. Peanut had cheer camp (which she talks about on her blog) and planned to ride the Metro home. We had gone over the route and she had a charged phone just in case. However, she didn't want to call me (even though it was POURING) because she REALLY wanted to ride the bus. She went straight when she was supposed to turn, and ended up 5 blocks from her bus stop. No big deal. I picked her up and we talked about the mistake. Told her that she can try again tomorrow when she has her next practice. She is so excited about the independence. I'm a nervous wreck ... but I think that's the role of the mom.

Once I got home with her, I took a power nap because my anxiety had taken everything out of me. The girls had fallen asleep so it was safe. It wasn't until I woke that MORE turbulence blew in. I'm really glad I had that power nap. Bullfrog was grumping about wanting a specific fork (I have no idea) and Monkey was fussing because she wanted a blue cup. We didn't have any blue cups clean, but she was convinced. It was just really bad. She refused dinner, refused to say thank you when we found a blue sippy, etc. She spent a great deal of time in her room trying to calm down but wouldn't really talk to us about it at all. We finally got her to snap out of it with a different dinner (all she wanted was her blue sippy with water, sun butter, and S'Mores Oreos) and some strong hugs.

So ... how did I stay sane? Well, I went to Dollar General and I bought the kids S'Mores Oreos (mentioned above) and decided that I would just treat them because of all the work they had done over the summer so far. They knew that I could surprise them at any time. Therefore, I felt the S'Mores were not a reward for poor behavior, but rather a treat they had already earned. It took everyone and put them in a good mood. I can go to bed knowing that I have happy children, despite the really cruddy day ... and pray tomorrow is better.

Now I ask you ... how do you stay sane and repair a day that is just perfectly awful? Do you have children who have higher needs? What are ways that you deal with the meltdowns (I am NOT talking temper fits ... these are meltdowns).