When the new wears off

Most of us like nice new shiny things. We wonder what we did before the shiny came along. After a while it loses its shine. It no longer holds our attention the way it did. When a person has transition issues when the new wears off, bad behavior begins. We moved recently. It was a wonderful thing. Going from a two bedroom apartment to a three bedroom house. It still is. We are extremely blessed in it. However, we are now starting to see behavioral issues.

It is a combination of things that cause this. We moved,  had a wonderful summer. School starts for my youngest. My youngest loves school. It is a change. Usually not a huge deal. My oldest is confused why we have school at all in this new house. She thought we left all that behind along with the cramped space. She loves just roaming the house and going out into the yard as she pleases. However, We have work to do. She isn't very good at communicating her distaste in this matter. We start having bad behavior. Behavior we haven't seen in a few years. This leaves a person frustrated. Also any special needs mother knows you see a behavior creep back up, you start having anxiety. You know there is a battle to face.

My youngest loves school. It doesn't mean she would love to be told what to do. She would love to be in a seat. She would love to go to gym when she wants to go to the library. She has a schedule in mind. It is not the actual schedule. She had a good first couple of weeks. I refer to this as the "honeymoon". It is well over. When somebody is potty trained then isn't it, frustrating. Someone is sleeping fine in their own bed now isn't, frustrating. Leah is a little more aggressive in her method of showing distaste. She prefers to be very loud and angry. We got down to about 30 minutes to eat now it is well over an hour. It can be almost two hours.

We are having so many issues during the day I can't list them all. We had an established way of dealing with things. When you change environments you might have to change what you do. Sharon is use to me being this way at the old place. She wants a different routine since she is at a different place. We also had therapist changes which makes things worse for us. She is trying to generalize here but it is very difficult. Leah is just trying to gain control. She has a different school schedule than before. She remembers the schedule. It is not the same. Nothing she can do about it. She is trying to control something. This is why she is behaving the way she is.

I am writing these things down for one reason. If I can help another mother understand why her child is going bonkers, I need to write it. Sometimes we don't think of these things that don't really effect us. Transitions effect our children. When they have one more transition than they can handle it can lead to bad behavior. We even block out the last time we went though some stuff don't we? I go to Walgreens all the time. My children are horrible in Walgreens and I say never again. Then I go back a week later. We now have to make the new into something that is old, comfortable and easy. I am still trying to figure that out.