Thursday, January 14, 2010

The need for sameness!

While I sit here relaxing with my third cup of tea today, I am aware of the silence that surrounds me and how much I like it. I now have finally been able to despatch my children off to school and all that remains is a delicious silence and emptiness in the house and it made me realise how much I value that sameness in the days that the children are being educated.
Let me explain, our children need routine in order to get them from A to B without any interruptions or meltdowns, we all follow certain patterns in order to avoid any un-necessary hiccups along the way and hope there isn't any change in events that would cause a major bump in the road for them.
However we too have this desire for sameness, we all breathed a sigh of relief at getting them back to school, we follow routines every day ourselves, we bring them to school, we collect them, we do homework with them, make dinner etc. We all follow a set pattern with one difference between them and us, they need help to transition into their routines whereas we can cope with curveballs thrown at us and not throw a major wobbly over it, yes it might be a inconvienence to us but nothing we can't handle.
Take me for example, when they go to school I do not have a shred of noise in the house, no tv is put on, no radio, I have to have complete silence in order to preserve my sanity before the onslaught begins when they return. This has become very important to me but if it was shattered briefly I would be able to cope, this is not the case for our children. I now have a finer appreciation for children that go around with their hands up to their ears because they cannot filter out the noise that comes at them, I get where they are coming from and how distracting that must be for them. I also get the fact of why they act up if routines are not in place because I too can be upset if something crops up out of the blue.
Today I waved two very happy little children off to school pleased that not only where they going back to routine but I was as well and oh how happy that made me!

9 comments:

  1. We are all creatures of habit, no doubt about it. I love my routine but yes, you are right, we can make the adjustments needed if we get a curveball. Appreciating our own need for routine helps us understand our children better. Great post, so well said and so so important for us to understand:) Jen

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  2. oh i wish i could say the same for ky, il be pulling her out of the car and dragging her into school lol

    but yes, it is hard when routine breaks, luca feeling the effects too

    BUT ROLL ON MONDAT

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  3. hopefully get my routine tomorro...enough is enough altho thankfully they havent been too bad...wii and ds are godsend...today is our day 28 cooped up indoors...noses not been outside the door apart from xmas day went to my folks....amazin how u can adapt to being institutionalised lol...wont know wat to do with myself when get car back and roads clear...I NEED routine...plan is to stay offline in the mornings and get stuff done...i mean who else has xmas tree still up on the 14th of Jan lmao....another crackin post andra xx

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  4. I too like the sameness and predictability of a routine. A much happier boy just arrived home from school than the one I've seen over the past 3 weeks. the saying "a change is as good as a rest" certainly doesn't apply in this house!xx

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  5. I love knowing what I have to do and when and the kids are the same. Thank god they are back to school lol xx

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  6. We all need routine, I too love my quiet time in the morning (well when Noelie is not exercising her vocal cords!). I was glad to bring Marie back to school, now I can get stuff done! X

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  7. You have terrific empathy with our autie kids Andra...and the relief of getting back to "sameness" is overwhelming. Bob pitched a small fit whe he saw his uniform thismorning, but he practically danced into school when we got there. Your post is spot on XXX

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  8. Silence is golden indeed! I cherish the silence while Griffin is in school and turn nothing on either. I think that I enjoy having no routine while he is in school and just winging it and having a routine while he is at home.

    Great post Andra!

    Lora and Griffin :)

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  9. Hi! I'm visiting from MBC. Great blog.

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