A fellow blogger friend of mine has a weekly post entitled Meditation Monday that gently and humorously reminds us to take a moment to relax. While I did read the blog and think to myself That would be nice and all... but I actually ended up using meditation throughout my evening. And I wasn’t the only one meditating...
I had a Reiki Master class tonight which involved a lengthy meditation. While I greatly enjoyed the meditation, I was pretty tired by the end of the class. Class is 7:00-10:00pm which means that my husband picked up the kids from the gym and picked up the slack with them. Unfortunately for him, it was a rather difficult night.
My son was particularly short tempered tonight and especially irrationally adamant. For example, on the way home, they stopped at a sub shop for dinner. My son always gets a toasted ham and turkey, bacon, shredded cheddar cheese and mayo sub. My husband doesn’t know that, so it was completely confusing when my son was pointing to the shredded cheese and saying he wanted American cheese. After clearly asking for American cheese and verifying for certain that he wanted American cheese, that’s what was given to my son. Of course, that’s when he finally understood that he really wanted shredded cheddar. Panic and frustration sets in and begins to bubble over.
*Think of a volcano... ground shaking, lava gurgling, under stress, but hasn’t yet erupted.
He was upset, but my husband was able to settle him down. There were a few moments like this as the night went on and that volcano crept closer and closer to erupting until finally...
My husband notifies the kids that it is time to get ready for bed. There’s griping (no surprise here). My son is sent to bed to read quietly. Now, I was at class, but from what I was told, I imagine it went a lot like this...
“But I don’t have my iPod!! I need it to read!!”
To which I’m sure husband told him to go ahead and get it.
“It’s in Mom’s car and she’s not here!! I can’t go to bed without it!!”
At which point he walks off and continues to get closer to eruption.
My daughter displayed amazing (and surprising) heart when she offered up her iPod so he could feel better. He snaps at her and declines. He apparently spends some quality time hitting walls.
*And we have eruption...
He’s so upset about all of this that he states that he feels like he’ll die (Oh, the drama... thank you Asperger’s Syndrome).
*Do you have a metal umbrella, because that lava is really raining down now.
So that statement completely upsets my daughter and she begins crying as well. And that’s when I came home...
I walked in, greeted by the lovely but heartbroken, tearful face of my daughter who hugged me and explained that her brother said something that would give her nightmares (Yep, they were all awake still). I can hear a heated conversation coming from the kids’ room. As I make my way into the bedroom, I can see that my husband is at the end of his jump rope and my son is utterly overwhelmed.
I take over, giving my husband a chance to settle down, and calmly explain a few things. “We may want our iPod, but we do not need it. If you feel upset, simply say that you’re upset and need a break. Hitting walls is never tolerated...” yada yada, blah blah blah. Well, he settled down and I put on a meditation mp3 for him to calm down to. He liked it so much he wanted to do another one.
*Ahh, volcano lies dormant again.
We may have to continue Meditation Monday around here...
On a side note-- As I tucked in my daughter and gave her kisses, she hugs me and tells me “I really missed you.” That gave me a big smile and she got an extra long hug tonight!
You're such a pro! I'm having your Monday today! Myriam has been upset all morning--it's gonna be a fun day!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Thanks for the link back!
Oh boy, I feel for you! I swear there are days I just want to turn everything off and make everyone stay in separate rooms with plenty of busy work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment!
You did handle that like a pro! As you were writing I could understand his melt down.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alissa... I wish I always could handle meltdowns so well!
ReplyDelete