This week Alison is joined again by Huma and Suzana to discuss breaking from normal routines. What are the highs and lows of summer breaks like in your house? Do you stick to your routine?

Topics

00:00 - This Life, the chronicles of Autism Moms Podcast, season 2, episode 2: Part 2 – Break From The Norm

00:30 – Alison kicks off the episode

02:20 – Managing your child with Autism and their break from routine and your other children

05:30 – Suzana: Focusing short trips on the kids and their likes and needs

09:10 – Suzana: Some kids like to stay at home in routines and left to do their own thing on their own time

09:50 – Not traveling out of Doha in the summer, how was that Huma? What have you seen in your kids that's different about your kids? What were the highs and lows?

11:42 – Huma: I've put in my "time" and it's ok for me to sit back and enjoy doing nothing!

14:44 – Huma: It's ok for me to also step back and take a break! For the first time in my life I'm saying "I'm Tired!" I own it and I give myself permission to do that.

16:34 – It's a normal human behavior to snap sometimes!

16:12 – Autism moms are under pressure to get stuff done. And it's not just the "normal" stuff, it's the heavy stuff. It's another layer on top of the "normal" stuff.  You feel the pressure of the time-frame.

16:40 – With the experience, you have the "luxury" of remembering that you're human and they're human and that we're not perfect. You do your best. And when you're tired and you need to rest and not "do" but just "be", you pull a Huma and say "I'm Tired!" And then you can get your energy back up to start again.

18:24 – Huma asking her own mother: Mom, were we this difficult? Oh Huma, I think about you and am in awe of all that you do. Huma: That was still really nice to hear.

19:10 – Suzana: I think it's always nice to be validated but I think you'll always notice things nobody else does, you're always analyzing and on alert, it's hard to take on sometimes.

21:00 –We don't always celebrate the accomplishments of our kids, we are happy but we are always thinking about the next thing, what's next?  I need to learn about the next thing very quickly because I don't want to mess things up!

22:10 – Sometimes too much talking is exhausting!

Tune in next week for part 3!

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