Holiday routine

Wes thrives on routine. Holidays disrupt every notion of routine. It’s a recipe for stress and frustration that we deal with every single holiday. What do I mean?

Well, first of all, today is a Monday when Wes would normally have school, but there is no school until January 5th… “winter break”. It’s enough time for Wes to forget his “routine” and make back to school the first week just as miserable as life right now. Then there is holiday hype. Wes really gets excited about holidays. It doesn’t really matter which holiday, he likes, no loves, them all. In his mind, we should celebrate them all with the same fanfare.

It looks like really big highs-excitement and happiness- and then really big lows-fits of tantrums, screaming, crying, and misery. It feels like the highs are fewer between and the lows are louder and longer. All of these ups and downs wear on all of the rest of us. We get shorter and less patient.

It all makes holidays really tough here, not just the holiday, but many days to the lead up to them and many days after.

Right now, for example, I’m in my room listening to Wes’ 4th or 5th tantrum in the last 2 hours. And just like that, the screaming stopped and he is laughing hysterically.