It could be worse

Most of my adult life I have been a glass half full gal. So it should come as no surprise that with parenting I view all situations with an "it could have been worse " moto. Raising 3 neuro-typical children and 1 special needs child I have plenty of opportunities to say this to myself. Most recently Caroline ran up from the basement where the kids had been playing to tell me Mitchell was sticking his head in the toilet and he didn't he any clothes on. What could have been worse? In my mind worse would be if he had gone to the bathroom before hand and kept his clothes on so they are now soaked. But being the neat person he is these days and I'm sure thinking ahead for mommy's reaction (ha ha) the toilet was clean and his clothes were dry enough to put right back on after a stepping into the shower. I think if I didn't see things the way I would have lost my mind a long time ago. Yesterday when Mitchell decided to pee through the second floor railing all over the couch, it could have been worse how? Easy, if someone was sitting on the couch.. No one was hurt in the incident and it sets a pretty low standard for the rest of my day.

Letter to the Editor

Since my recent letter to Lockport Legend has been published I feel it is a good time to share what happened to us. As you will read, DCFS came to our house on March 27 - Mitchell's 6th birthday. We do not know what prompted the call to the hotline the weekend prior nor do we have confirmation of who made that call, we likely will never know. I have decided it is time I start making people aware of what special needs families live with. Mitchell has Autism and it's not going away. I have a voice and I am going to put it to good use.

7:40 ~ Time To Turn Off The Lights

Most nights for the last 3 months Mitchell likes to turn off all the lights in the house at 7:40pm. It beats running around the house at 9:00pm flipping all the lights on but it's still annoying. We have done homework by flashlight, held cub scout meetings in the dark and tonight I got to clean a bathroom by memory, in the dark. It's humorous because Steven and Caroline just yell "oh Mitchell" and continue what they are doing without sight until he has moved onto another room. Just another adjustment we make at Ivey central.