Happy birthday, Michael. On Saturday it will be Michael’s turn to have a party. We will be celebrating his 8th birthday and we have invited his class over for pizza and a disco. It was Michael’s choice to have that combination and for me, I thought that would be quiet entertaining and fun to do. Michael is excited about it and he is looking forward to having his friends over. We don’t have a very large friends circle for the kids outside the school as time is somewhat limited. I am not really seeking play dates for them. Twice during the week we have therapy at home straight after school, which makes it impossible to have somebody over and I find when the weekend comes around time and energy for play dates are not a high priority. I know they should be, but they are not. We live on a little farm and when we have a bit of time to spent together as a family we do things outside taking care of the animals or driving the tractor looking after the farm. So he is really excited to have his party. He loves when he is the focus of the attention and he is without a doubt looking forward to getting all his presents. All children do, I guess. But with having a party also comes the anxiety of the games and “fun”. Michael has a very hard time toleration losing games, which often escalates into tears and inappropriate behaviours. We have been working on this particular area for years and we are yet to master it. He has improved a lot after hours and hours on end practising how to tolerate losing a game. It has been one of the hardest areas for Michael to deal with and I know there is still a long way to go, before he has overcome that hurdle. I was considering NOT having any party games at his party to avoid any anxiety. I was considering just letting the kids entertain themselves, but I thought that would just create a huge amount of chaos and trouble. Kids like structure and when you have 25 sugar filled kids structure is probably a good idea. So I had a chat to Michael and we negotiated that we were going to have some games to entertain his guest, such as hitting the piñata, Limbo dance and other dance activities. During the dance activities Michael suggested to be the DJ and be the one in charge of stopping and starting the music. I thought that was a fair negotiation, so we will be doing that. I find it a bit hard to create a party which fits both worlds and which caters for all needs. I guess it’s near impossible. I want to make sure that everyone has a great time and no one feels uncomfortable, because that is not the point with the party. I want to hear laughter and not cries. I want to see smiles and not tears. It is really hard to make a party, when you have to consider your 3 children and their sensory, emotional and behavioural difficulties all at once. So I am hoping by negotiating and taking into consideration the things Michael has expressed he will have loads of fun. Fingers crossed it will all turn out just fine :-)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 10:32:09 +0000
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