I Had To Do It

poor simon! It's hard on everyone and harder for kids who don't transition quickly. We got rid of TV about a year ago, and now they just watch an occasional show on the laptop. Helps with the controls but they still ask a LOT.

Ali, Thank you so much for posting this. I felt like I was reading about my day, well actually last coupe of days. My son totally has Wii withdrawl and asks the same thing: "I don't know what to do if I'm not on the Wii." So I say to him: "How about we put together your legos?" I love the idea of the Lego people display. I have an old wooden Coke crate that I think would work. Thank you again for sharing. You are an inspiration to me!! Lauren

I'm so not showing the Lego guy shelves to my son. He already adopted the Lego drawer storage. We don't have room for this one. :-)

Thanks for sharing.

Ali, I thoroughly enjoyed this post. I, too, have to go a few rounds with Malcolm about that Pirates Wii game, which he bought last week, I think. I totally had to forbid him from playing with it Monday because, despite my multiple requests, he keeps dropping his pants and underwear right in the middle of the family room floor when he comes home from school! Arrgh!

*sigh* completely understand. we go through this with our 4yro. and no matter the guidelines that we set for him, the tantrums are always inevitable. ours is usually with the computer. we tell him how long he can play for and we stress that once we tell him "time's up" he has to finish playing. we make him repeat the rule. i reminded every five minutes how much playing time he has left ... "15 more minutes, buddy ...", "10 more minutes ..." and he always replies with a cooperative "yes, mummy". but of course when his turn is finished he starts a chorus of "but's and aw~'s" and throws himself on the floor.

sometimes we just let him go, pay no attention to his behavior and he'll shake it off by himself. other times, when i'm feeling the stress of the day, we'll give him an ultimatum ... he can either continue his tantrum, go into timeout and lose his computer privileges. or he can be a "big boy" and go play with something else. more often than not, he's too heated to make the right decision but the 5mins in timeout usually calms him down.

I so love your honest sharing of those tough times as well as your positive attitude. When our kids were young we monstly didn't have a TV. Their friends were astonished. They got a lot of wpquestions "What do you DO?!!!!" They were very creative kids, rarely bored, and felt like they didn't really have time for TV. I really think that our overly available entertainment makes for easily bored people (adults too), and I know from personal experience that it is vastly more difficult with children who don't transition well.

I very much appreciate your focus on the positive things in spite of the difficulties.

You know, I totally love how they surprise us. Every once in a while Michael (almost 13) will surprise me and say, "Mom, I haven't gotten a proper hug today". It just melts my heart. I love it when he asks me to sit with him while he does his homework. I love it even more when he asks for help with something (even something as simple as how to print front-back on the printer) as he's very much in the independent, becoming-a-man, pulling-away-from-mom place in his life. We have the same problem with the Xbox in our house, to the point that we have to hide the remotes so he doesn't sneak down to the basement and play. And if you think Simon is stomping now ..... just wait! ;)

A dietician once told me that if I didn't keep junk food in the house my family would be forced to eat the healthy stuff-its true. That doesn't mean we didn't have junk food-but we had to make special trips for those treats. I wish I had applied the same principles to electronic equipment-it caused endless negotiating and a lot of stress-looking back my advice is-chuck the tv and computer games-go out as a family to watch a movie or to the arcade to play games-healthy families are worth the effort!

It's nice to hear your real life stories. I know Simon is high functioning (I've worked with several very low-functioning autistic children and it's definitely a challenge!), and often I assume you (and he) are able to handle things quite well. You always seem so on top of things, I also assume that things are running pretty smoothly at home.
So here's to real life!
I'm glad that Simon had a turn-around. I had to laugh about the supper - my 2-yr-old also takes his sweet time at all meal-times. And he's had a few rough days lately due to a cold. But when he goes down willingly for a nap and nighttime, saying "WAH-oo" (love you), my heart still melts!
Thank you.

love seeing simon's room! what color is the paint in there? (you knew someone would eventually ask - right! lol)
thanks as always ali ;]

I have a type case stored away to do something special for Samuel and I may eventually do the same thing you did. Samuel is too young right now for Legos but I can't wait ...

And as a new momma, I have to admit that there are some challenges to having kids but the stuff they do that melt your heart makes you forget all the difficult times. Love that Simon ended up giggling away before he went to sleep. This is the kind of stuff that I love right now with my little guy.

I do remember the 'phase out' problems with my (autistic) kids. I tried to soften it by mentioning 10 minutes before time that they had 10 minutes more to play. And then by allowing even some more minutes to adjust... :-)

I also learned that when they had switches to make, it was much more helpful if I not just say what they had to do, but also started the activity.
Even something like playing: helping to get the toys out, asking what they were about to do and then play along for 3 or 5 minutes. It took more time and effort, but it went so much smoother!

Wishing you all the strength and luck that you need as a Mom - maybe today you can snap a picture of his great smile: a different side that is also a part of him. :-)

was looking for a case to do the same and came across this on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Letterpress-Type-Design-Wood-Metal-All-Lower-Case-e-/280680049946?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4159d5ad1a

thought it was right up your alley.

Shannon

We also had a major meltdown in our house a few days ago... my daughter was super excited to get a small part in the school play. But as time has gone on, it has turned out to be way more work and a lot more boredom than she expected. She wanted to quit halfway through but we talked her out of it. Then on wed she did 3 performences and had only one to go for thursday. Wed night major meltdown how she did not want to do the last performance, so boring, I hate it, etc etc. Such a hard lesson but important lesson to teach and learn, commitment, following through on promises etc. Hours of crying and whinning and pleading. She finally decided to agree to do it.... and then did happily do it the next day. But WHEW i was worn out and was thinking to myself, ahhhh parenting is so so so much harder than I thought it was going to be, and sometimes I actually hate being a parent! Thank goodness for the awesome moments!!!! It can be easy to focus on the difficult ones, but I try to find the small and big good moments and savor them!

I love your story,you gave me a thought of what should i expect from my son as a mother.Thank you for sharing this with us,it is a wonderful story and so inspiring.For more inspiring Story's people can visit http://www.inspireweb.com.

[...] 2 & 3. Picture frame or lego storage by aliedwards [...]

Hi Ali,
Can you please tell me where you got that poster that's in the picture of Anna playing with the pirate ship, right next to her? Like Simonmy son enjoys those Star Wars "guys". Thanks

[...] insert that includes this story from last week. I used one of my long journalers to hold the [...]

The lego display is such a cool idea! This would definitely save my bare feet from unwanted interactions with those little men :)

I feel your pain w/ the Wii. I have to limit our son's time on it also. Too long and he gets a migrane...I think they just zone out and it's difficult for them to transition back to reality after they've gotten sucked into the game, Mario or Lego Star Wars or whatever it may be. Ali, I love the idea about using the printer drawer for mini fig storage...I'm going to try that. My DH and I each have a print drawer handed down from our respective families. I used mine to create a picture arrangement after seeing yours in the DIY section of your site. I cherish it each time I see it hanging on the wall. Thanks to you again, now I know what we're going to do with the other drawer. Our son is way into legos just like your Simon. He would love this idea. Thanks again for sharing your creative ideas here.

Hi Ali,
I've loved your type drawer idea since I first spotted it forever ago! And I happened upon one at an antique sale this weekend. Yay! So, I was curious if you had any tips/preferences on hanging them securely?
Thanks in advance for your response and thanks so much for all of your inspiring ideas!
Carey

[...] Ali Edwards painted and hung a printer’s type drawer in her son’s bedroom to keep all his little Lego Figures organized. Not only is this storage solution convenient but it is also decorative. In this case she used an old printer’s drawer, which is why it already has all those smaller divisions, but I am thinking one can also divide any regular old drawer. Also, scrapbooking stores sometimes sell them. No comments [...]

Hi Ali-
Could you please share the wall color of Simon's room? I've been looking fir a color for my Son's room & this looks great.
Thanks
Brandi