Lived Experience Forum

[Miss-wish]

Hi Everyone,

So it feels like I've been so busy this week due to school going back. Even worse I have a finger brace on my pointer finger as it feels broken, no nose picking for me lol ( I'm joking, it's too big to fit in my little nose) 😁

What does everyone do to help with the stress of starting back at school or getting ready to send the little gremlins/ angels back to school ? 

What self-care do you do for yourself?

[tyme]

Lunchboxes are the biggest issue @Miss-wish . I don't have my own kids, but I make my niece and nephew's lunchboxes - only for them to bring heaps back home. So the night before, we talk about what's going in the lunchbox and what to eat first etc.

Today, one kid left a slinky apple (yes, we make slinkies for them), and the other kid left their quirks, strawberries, grapes and carrots...but that's okay, he at the chicken schnitzel wrap.

I don't see them go to school because their dad takes them. I sometimes see them when then come home and I just ask them about their day.

As part of their sleep routine, I ask the eldest about her day, their mum asks my nephew about his day, and dad is putting the baby to sleep by telling stories and singing to her....it may sound stressful, but it's actually a really nice time.

Geez! Talking about them makes me love them more!

I'm not going to talk about all the screaming an carrying on to get changed, put their shoes on, find their library books etc. Love can overlook that...(for a while)

Thanks for starting this thread @Miss-wish 

Tagging @ArraDreaming who may be interested in this tread

[ArraDreaming]

Thanks for the tag @tyme
I’m not sure how much help I can be given my 3 and 6 yo are both still up at 10pm and are refusing to turn Shrek off and go to bed without a fight lol @Miss-wish however yes I do have 2 in kindy/school now, which is pretty big.
Got a few tricks up my sleeve I can share but always up for more
I will write some up

[Miss-wish]

Hi  @tyme, I definitely understand the lunch box thing, except 1 of my children had anxiety over eating in front of other kids. In the end she had to eat in the classroom away from everyone to be able to eat.

We have since changed to distance education, so I no longer shout for them to get shoes on, it's to get off devices and onto their school computers for class lol.

Our nighttime routine is always the same and has been since my 24yo was little and I picked it back up after my 12yo was born, Tea/ Dinner has to be on the table between 5:15 and 5:45 ( I aim for 5:30) every night or they wont eat unless it's takeaway or homemade pizza. Medication at 6:20, bath/ shower at 6:30 and quiet time from then until hopefully 8:30 when they fall asleep ( on a bad night it's 1 or 2am before they fall asleep). 

Oh gosh I sound like an army mum and not an ASD mum lol and yes it can take them that long to eat, if it doesn't and it's not takeaway, then they feed their tea to the dog lol 

[ArraDreaming]

@Miss-wish
We have one that has really really struggled since 3yo kinder and is now in year 1: In terms of lunchboxes no matter how tired we are, we always do lunches the night before, and what doesn’t get eaten like the apple which always comes back goes onto afternoon fruit plate if it’s still edible, not like warm cheese or anything. And for ours it’s just consistency. We put things in that we know he will eat, but then it seem like a waste of food because the cost of living is out of control but we kept putting a couple of things that we wanted him to try but just didn’t push.
Kept putting in cherry tomatos, they kept coming back and we didn’t even say anything about it until one day they didn’t come back 🤷🏾
Exposure I guess.
Our 3yo has only had a packed lunch once so far and seemed to eat a lot of things