This week I celebrated another lockdown birthday. It was much better than the last one, but it still had it’s difficulties. I know now that Charlie needs routine and structure otherwise he just falls apart and really struggles to regulate. So things like birthdays are really tough. There’s an air of difference, Charlie knows today is different but he just doesn’t know why. I try and keep it all low key, but it’s not easy as people want to celebrate with me. And it’s hard to expect others to step inside your shoes without that in depth knowledge of how you manage day to day to keep the calm. Needless to say, because Thursday morning was “different” it spiralled Charlie and he was struggling to go to school. I had made plans with my boyfriend who had booked the day off work for it. For Charlie not to go to school would of put a big dint in our plans, but we would have to accept it. Because ultimately Charlie comes first and his needs are more important. Luckily by the magic of google play and an online game (I am normally against bribery) Charlie went to school at around 10.15am. However, it was short lived and by 1.30pm he was asking to come home. We now recognise, that when he asks to come home it is a positive and he is not regulating his emotions at school. Beforehand, this would of led to his emotions spiralling and then inevitably being in a situation where he would be physical, be restrained and be excluded. And that is something I desperately want to avoid as it is not in his best interests and would undo all his hard work.

I have been working on a sensory processing blog. I started it in February! And it’s been impossible to finish because there is so much information that I have gathered. Sensory processing is an area of Charlie’s development that he really struggles with and it impacts his life greatly. It would be great to share this with you all as I feel it can turn into a positive discussion which will resonate with a lot of families.

I also want to make my social media more accessible so everyone can benefit from it. I have started adding image descriptions and using hash tags capitalising the first letter of a new word so that screen readers can read them. I always caption on stories as I don’t do talking stories. There’s a number of reasons for this, mostly because I want the focus of this account to be on Charlie and the difficulties we have at accessing life, when it really shouldn’t be that hard. I don’t want to shift that focus onto myself which I feel I can risk if I start doing talking life, daily stories. Our life is pretty boring tbh there’s actually not much to share!! I also have a skin condition that can flare up at any point and that will not be helpful if I am on stories daily it would actually add to my stress levels. So that is the reasons why for now.

Things to focus on - accessible social media, and sensory processing blog.

And all the other blogs that are hiding in me waiting to come out. I have a feeling that the Easter holidays will definitely move towards completing this. I know Charlie can’t wait to finish for Easter. And we all want the eggs.

Georgina x