Trying our best

As I watch the hours on the clock, the days seem to be going by slowly. And yet, I see that April 5 was the last posting I have 15 days ago.  

Take it as a good sign. For the most part, if things are going badly, I’m usually trying to put my thoughts down and give a run through of what happened on that day; after all, I blog about the incidents and experiences related to my son’s autism. 

In my last post Those Awful Scars, Puppy had his last meltdown. His teacher and aides have been working with him by reinforcing the idea that he controls his own emotions and actions. Whenever he is feeling tense or upset, he is suppose to walk to a quiet chair away from others and count as high as he can. He’s practiced this only a few times. But he has not had another meltdown. Sure, he’s had his moments of anger when he raises his hand to his mouth and threatens to bite himself. He’s done this with me about 4 times since the last meltdown. But guess what? He doesn’t follow through. And I could not tell you why he hasn’t. I have replied with, “Don’t hurt yourself”,”that will make me sad”, “go ahead”, and for whatever reason, he did not bite himself to any of those responses. I can say that it is more often than not attention seeking tactics. 

But as the years go by I have learned that there is no right or wrong answer.  He controls his emotions and actions. It all relies on how he interprets what he hears. And because he’s wired differently and takes words literally, there’s no telling how he interprets words or what he hears for that matter. We simply try our best to remain calm in all situations. Puppy, we will take it one day at a time.